Wca Julkr Mottkiea' pbrarg. 



THE 

POEMS 

OF 

GILES FLETCHER, B.D., 

EECTOE OF AXDEHTOX, STJFEOLK : 
FOR THE FIRST TDCE 

COLLECTED AND EDITED: 

WITH 
BY THE 

EEY. xlLEXAlS^DEE B. GSOSAET, 

ST. GEOEGE's, BLACKEIJRX, LAI^CASHIEE. 



PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 

1868. 

156 COPIES ONLY, 



.h 



^ 






/c^C 



TO 

. f 

GLASGOW: "^ 4. 

A 

*"Sw8et ginger;^ 

A 

^Warbler of i^oettc Jf^rose;^ 

AHD A 

&otjd ajiii Trtre Friend; 

HIS FIEBT COLLECTBB EDITIOIT OP A2f OLD 
POET IS 

AFPECTIONATELT DEDICATED 

BY 

ALEXANDER B. GKOSAET. 



MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. 




m 



HINEAS, and not Giles Fletchek as 
usually supposed — was the first-bom of 
his Pamily ; and hence such new facts 
and details as I have had the good fortune to 
discover (and recover) concerning the Eletchees, 
will find most fitting place in the Memoir of him 
to be prefixed to our reprint of his ^ Poems.' 

The father of our Poets was Giles Pletchee, 
L.L.D., brother of Eichaed Pletchee, who died 
Bishop of London. He was a man who did valorous 
and varied service to his Country : his visit to 
Theodoee Ivai?^owich, ^czar' of Eussia, and his 
book about it, being the most notable. Dr. Giles 
Plbtchee was son of good Eichaed Pletchee, the 
first Eefoemation ' pastor ' of Ceai^beoob: in Kent, 
and in his somewhat stormy and wandering life, 
he is found flitting to and fro between the paternal 
Vicarage and London. Phii^eas was born — as we 
shall prove — in Ceaneeook; but Giles was bom 



b MEMORIAL-II^TEODUCTIOlSr. 

in London by the testimony of Thomas Puxleu in 
his ^ "Worthies.'^ His informant was the Eev. 
John- Eamsey of ^Eougham in Norfolk' who 
married the widow of our Poet.f It is to be 
regretted that his birth-date was not given by 
Ffllee. Chalmees' J conjecture of 1588 seems 
improbable, as in the present volume will be found 
his ^ Canto ' upon the death of Elizabeth, originally 
published in 1603, that is, in such case, when he 
was in his 14th or 15th year. I do not forget 



* Yol. II., 82 (edt. 1811 by Nichols). 

t Fuller and after him his editors, and even "Willmott, 
misspell this excellent man's name 'Rainsey.' It is 
Eamsey, as appears by a volume of his ' Sermons/ of 
ripe learning and rare quaintness and memorableness 
of thinking and style — which is in my lihrary viz : 
' Prseterita or a Summary of several Sermons : the 
greater part preached many years past in several 
places, and upon sundry occasions. By John Eamsey, 
Minister of East Eudham in the County of Norfolk, 
1650 (4°) The 'Eegisters ' of his Church and Parish 
are all gone till within a century of the present time ; 
and hence no memorial of him remains there. I have 
not met with another copy of his ' Prseterita.' In his 
Epistle Dedicatory to Duport, he describes it as a 
* second mite into the Churches Treasury : the common 
gazophylacium of the Press.' 

J Biog. Diet. st<^ nomine. 



MEMOEIAL-INTEODUCTIOl^. 7 

that at the same age, if not younger, Milton put 
forth ^^ the shooting of the infant oak which in 
later times was to overshadow the forest" — as 
Dr. Symmons with unwonted vivacity describes 
his translations from the Psalms. Eut while these 
Psalms owe perhaps their choicest epithets and 
most vivid touches to Sylvester (^ du-Eartas ') the 

* Canto ' is strictly original and altogether too 
prodigious a production for a mere youth. The 
reader can turn to the * Canto ' and judge for 
himself. 

Our first new fact — and a valuable one — we 
are able to add here viz : that his mother's name 
was Joan Sheaee of Ceai^beooe:, Kent, daughter 
of one of the wealthy clothiers of the place. The 
^Eegister' shews that the marriage of this ^fair 
lady ' with Gilfs Tletchee Senr., took place on 
16th January, 1580 (o.s.) that is 1581.^ 

* I must heartily acknowledge the ungrudging labour of 

Mr. William Tarbutt of Cb-anbrook, iu aiding my 
Fletcher-researches. Painstaking, persevering and 
intelligent, without pretence, Mr. Tarbutt is an en- 
thusiast in all that honours his native town. We 
trust he will one day give us a ' History ' of it. Mr. 
Tarbutt' s investigations have yielded me important 
contributions to the Memoir of Phineas Fletcher 
and the Family generally : of which more hereafter. 



8 MEMOEIAL-INTEODUCTIOK. 

It is to be noted that Antliony a- Wood gives a 
place of honour to the son of Thomas Sheafe of 
Cranbrook, viz : Dr. Thomas Sheafe, who lies in 
the Chapel of St. George's, "Windsor. In all proba- 
bility this dignitary was brother of Joan, mother of 
our two poets."^ What would we not give to have 
the mother of John Milton as certainly traced ? 

Fuller further states that at an early age he 
was sent to ' Westminster ' School, and that he 
was elected from it to Trinity College, Cambridge. 
On this WiLLMOTT — than whom few have been 
more painstaking, as none had more penetrative 
insight, or finer poetic sympathies, or a more 
unerring taste — remarks: — 

'^ This is the relation of Fuller; but I am unable 
to reconcile it with the declaratian of Giles 
Fletchee himself. In the dedication of ^ Christ's 
Yictorie ' to Dr. J^evil, he speaks, with all the 
ardour of a young and noble heart, of the kind- 
ness he had experienced from that excellent man. 
He mentions his having reached down ' as it were 
out of heaven, a benefit of that nature and price, 



Athenae Oxon : by Bliss, sub nomine : his censure of 
another related Sheafe for leaving his money to * lay- 
men ' and not the Church, is mere abuse, and utterly 
unwarranted. 



MEMOEIAL-INTEODrCTIOlSr. 9 

than which he could wish none (only heaven 
itself excepted) either more fruitful and content- 
ing for the time that is now present, or more 
comfortable and encouraging for the time that is 
already past, or more hopeful and promising for 
the time that is yet to come." And further on, 
he expressly states that he was placed in Trinity 
College by Dr. NevH's ^ only favour, most freely, 
without either any means from others, or any 
desert in himself.' This praise could not have 
been consistent with truth, if Eletcher had 
obtained his election from Westminster School; 
and a careful examination of the Eegister-Book 
enables me to add that he was not upon the 
Foundation."^ 

This is decisive ; and yet no one will bear hard 
on dear ruLLEE, with such a mass of material to 
assort. I can testify, after following him in many 
recondite and special lines of inquiry, that his 
general accuracy is not less amazing than his 
immense industry. 



* Lives of th.0 English Sacred Poets : by Eobert Aris 
Willmott. 2iid edition, 2 vols. 12mo. 1839 : Yol i. 
p 64. THs is preferable here to the first edition, as it 
corrects previous errors, and is fuller : but the first 
edition is preferable in other respects, as will appear. 



10 MEMOaiAL-IJS^TEODTJCTION. 

The patronage of Dr. ]N"eyil must have been 
well-timed; for througlL the paternal responsibilities 
incurred as executor of his Bishop -brother, the 
Family were enduring at the period, painful hard- 
ships as an extant Letter — elsewhere to be used — 
gives pathetic evidence ^' 

That the ^ Canto ' of young Master Giles found 
so prominent a place in so prominent a volume as 

* Sorrowe's Joy ' : wherein the * wisest Fool ' King 
James, was welcomed by nearly all the University 

* singers', including Phzn-eas Fletchee — would 
seem to argue premature recognition. And yet 
very slender are the records of him even in his 
own College — renowned Trinity. Cooper's Athei^^ 
CAT^TAEEiGiEisrsis straugcly fails us altogether, 
though already covering the years of Giles' attend- 
ance.! Wood's Atheis-^ designates him * bat- 
chelour of divinity of Trinity College,' and adds 
with rare feeling for him ^ ' equally beloved of the 
muses and graces." J Does the mention of the 



* See our Memoir of Phineas: and meanwhile Bond's 
' Preface ' to Dr. Fletcher's book on Eussia, pp. cxxv 

— VI. 

t Vol. I. 1500—85 : Vol. ii. 1586—1609. Are we never 

to get Vol. Ill ? 
X Fasti (by BHss) i. 190—191. 



MEMOHIAL-ESTTEODirCTION. 1 1 

* Graces ' point to his personal beauty? If so — 
it recalls the ^ comeliness ' and noble presence of 
bis uncle (Eisbop Eletchee) tbat so ^ took ' 
Elizabeth. 

"We are enabled to add to his Tsikett dates. 
In the Scholars' Admission Book is the following 
entry in his own handwriting, under ^ April 12th, 
1605.' 

' -^gidius Fletchenis, Dicipulus juratus.' 

His name also occurs among the E.A. scholars 
in the Senior Eursar's book for 1606. He is 
there shewn to have received two quarterly pay- 
ments of 3s. 4d. The book for 1605 is missing, 
as is that for 1607 ; but in 1608 his name appears 
as a E.A. scholar, and he receives four quarterly 
payments of 3s. 4d. Such is all of ^ Eegister ' - 
memorial left ; slight but all new facts. ^ 

There can be no doubt that from 1603 of the 

* Canto,' to 1610 he was laying up those stores of 
various learning and of scholastic Divinity, for 
which he was afterwards so remarkable. 

In 1610, he published the poem — ^ Christ's 
Victorie ' — on which his Eame will rest immovably 

* I am deeply indebted to Mr. W. Aldis "Weight, M.A., 

of Trinity College for discovering these entries for me. 



12 MEMORIAL-INTEODTJCTION. 

^ while there is any praise.'^ A second edition 
was not issued until 1632. It is sufficiently clear 
that no more than the immortal ' Polio ' of 1623, 
^Paradise Lost' or 'Silex Scintillans' was this 
consummate poem * popular' while from his 
brother's Lines it is evident that ^maKcious 
tongues' depreciated it; and that otherwise he 
was not sufficiently estimated. "We must here 
read the loving fraternal ^ Lines.' *^ Upon my 
brother Mr. G. F. his book entituled ^ Christ's 
Victorie and Triumph.' 

Fond lads, that spend so fast your posting time, 
(Too posting time, that spends your time as fast) 
To chant light toyes, or frame some wantom rhyme, 
Where idle boyes may glut their lustfull taste ; 
Or else with praise to clothe some fleshly shme 
With virgin roses and fair lilies chaste ; 

While itching hlouds and youthfull eares adore it ; 
But wiser men, and once yourselves, will most abhorre it. 

But thou (most neare, most deare) in this of thiue 
Hast prov'd the Muses not to Venus bound ; 
Such as thy matter, such thy Muse, divine ; 
Or thou such grace with Mercie's self hast found. 
That she herself deignes in thy leaves to shine ; 



* Southey's British Poets : Chaucer to Jonson, p 807. 



MEMOEIAL-IN^TEODrCTIOI^. 13 

Or stoU'n from heav'n, thou brought' st this verse to 
ground, 
Which frights the nummed soul with fearfull thunder, 
And soon with honeyed dews thawes it *twixt joy and 
wonder. 

Then do not thou malicious tongues esteem ; 
(The glasse, through which an envious eye doth gaze, 
Can eas'ly make a mole-hill mountain seem) 
His praise dispraises, his dispraises praise ; 
Enough, if best men best thy labours deem, 
And to the highest pitch thy merit raise ; 
While all the Muses to thy song decree 
Victorious Triumph, triumphant Yictorie.," i 

That 'Clirist'syictorie' liad one supreme * student' 
in JoHis" Mtltoi^ every one discerns ; and the 
'one' is compensating renown. Surely and perma- 
nently, if slowly, the majority came round to the 
'one;' and now whoever knows aught of English 
Literature, knows ^ by heart ' the ^ thoughts that 
breathe in words that bum ' of this truly divine 
and imperishable Poem. If Giles had lived to see 
his brother's 'Sicelides' (1631); and perchance 
he did see it in the Manuscript — he would 
doubtless have found cheer in these lines of the 



1. ' Poeticall Miscellaniess/ p.p. 101-102 (1633). 



14 MEMOEIAL-INTEODFCTIOIir. 

^ Epilogue' in answer to the question ^ Wliat euer 
feast could every guest content T viz : 

" In this thought, this thought the Author eas'd 
"Who once made all, all rules — all neuer pleas' d ; 
Faine would we please the best, if not the many 
And sooner will the best be pleased then any; 
Our rest we set in pleasing op the best, 
So wish we you what you may give us : Eest." 

Puller has neglected to inform us in what year 
our ^ sweet Singer' received ordination; hut while 
in residence at Camhridge he was miich sought 
after as a ^preacher.' His pulpit was sacred ' St. 
Mary's ' from which have come perhaps the grandest 
Sermons ever spoken hy mortal tongues, and to 
the most large-hrained auditories found anywhere, 
not excepting * Panic's Crosse.'^ A peculiarity 
of his Sprayers, ' was that they usually consisted of 
one entire allegory ^ not driven, hut led on, most 
proper in all particulars."! It is scarcely a loss 
that 'prayers' of this type have not been preserved, 
and yet one would have liked to see a specimen, 
as one rejoices that in sequestered places one may 



* Cf. my Memoir of Dr. Eichard Sibbes, Yol i. pp. Hi, 

liii : and Masson's ' Milton.' 
t Puller, as before. 



MEMORIAL-IIirTEODTJCTIOl^. 15 

still see Gardens of the antique sort, wherein the 
God-made sylvage is transformed by art into all 
manner of Dutch fantastiques of beds and knots, 
^ without a leaf astray,' as ^ Our Tillage ' describes. 
In ^1612' Eletcher edited and published at 
Cambridge the ' Eemains ' of a remarkable ^ Oxford ' 
man — ]S'atha]s^iel Powi^oll. The ' Epistle Dedi- 
catory ' is addressed to John "King, Eishop of 
London. ; ^' and is a bit of terse, thoughtful English. 
"Willmot laments that he had not been able to 
obtain the book as ^' it would certainly tend to 
illustrate the poet's history." Eetween the first 
edition of his ^Lives' (1834) and the second 
(1839) he seems to have despaired of ever seeing 
it, and drops out all mention of it.f I am very 
pleased to be able to produce it from Seldeis^'s copy 



* See my Memoir of Bishop King prefixed to reprint of 
his ' Jonah. ' [4to.] 

t Cf. the former, p. 34 : In a foot-note here, Willmott is 
perplexed with a contradiction between Watt's ' Bih- 
hotheca Brittannica ' and the antiquary Cole, because 
the former describes Pownoll's volnme as printed at 
* Canterbury ' : bnt the explanation is that there was 
a mistake of Watt's editors (for his work was pos- 
thumous) in reading Cant[abrigi8e] :=Cambridge, as 
Canterbury. 



16 MEMOEIAL-INTEODIJCTION. 

of Pow]!^OLL, preserved in the * Bodleian '^ Here 
it is : — 

* To the Eeverend Father in God John L[ord] 
Bishop of London. 

Eight woorthie and reuerend Father in God : 

Blame not your ancient Obseruer, if no we, after 
he hath recouered in a manner, at Cambridge, that 
life which he lost at his departure from Oxford, 
he rises aniew, as it wear out of his ashes, to do 
his humble seruice to his Lordship ; and, indeede, 
to whome can any fruit that comes from him, bee 
with more right presented then to him, in whose 
garden, and onder whose shadow it griew ? Into 
whose hand should this small book, though 
wanting his owne Epistle, be deliuered, but onto 



* The following is the full title-page ' The Young Diviues 
Apologie for his contiuuance in the XJniversitie with 
Certaiae Meditations, written by Nathaniel Pownoll, 
late student of Christ- Church ia Oxford. Printed by 
CantreU Legge, Printer to the Yniversitie of Cam- 
bridge ; and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard by 
Matthew Lownes at the signe of the Bishop's head/ 
1612, [12mo.] Another edition of the 'Young Divine's 
Apology ' was published at Oxford ia 1658 ' printed 
for T. Robinson' and to this are added (1) His 
Meditation upon the calling of the Ministrie at his 



MEMOBIAL-INTEODUCTIOIS^. 17 

that, to which it hath before given so many 
Epistles ? whear can it looke for protection with 
more hope then whear it hath formerly, with all 
fanonr foiinde it? 

If your Lordship thearfore will be pleased to be 
the defender of this Apologie, and to breath as I 
may trnly say, the breath of life againe into his 
sequent Meditations, that so beeing annimated 
aniew with those onspeakable sighs, and alike 
feruent zeale of spirit, wherwith they wear first, 
as in fierie chariots, carried up into heau'n; I 
doubt not but they will seeme, beeing so quickned, 
to any that shall reade them (especially if, as Job 
wished in a case not much onlike, his soule wear 
in his soules stead) no cold, or dull, or dead 



first institution unto it. (2) A Meditation upon the 
first of the seauen penitentiall Psalmes of David. (3) 
His daily Sacrifice. These last three are contained in 
one volume at the end of the ^Apologie' 1612. I 
notice that in the "Will of our Giles' Uncle — Bishop 
EiCHARD Fletcher — he bequeaths, among other things 
the following : ' Item/ I geue vnto my sister PownoU 
twenty poundes. (Dyce's Beaumont & Fletcher, Vol. i. 
Ixxxviii.) Was this the mother of our Pownoll ? If 
so then we have a key to our poet's interest in editing 
and publishing his * Eemaines ' : in such case he was 
his cousin. 



1 8 MEMOEIAL-INTEODTTCTIOIir. 

lettets; and in so doing, you shall not onely follow 
him into his graue, but call him out of it with 
this so speciall a benefit, binding with the dead in 
one knot of thankfulnesse all his friends that yet 
live, and cannot but ioy to see your Lordship's 
fauour out-live the person on whom it is bestowed: 
of whome my selfe, being the leaste, shal euer 
thinke I am most bound to be. 

Your L. to command in all good seruice 

G. Pletchee.' 

To this falls to be added an equally good ^ Epistle ' 
to *the Eeader' which follows: — 

^ The Authour of this small discourse, or rather 
(giue mee leaue so to call him) the Swan that, 
before his death, sung this diuine song, is now 
thear, whear he neither needs the praise, nor 
fears the envy of any : whose life, as it deserued 
so it was covetous of no mans commendation ; 
himselfe being as farre from pride as his desert was 
neere it, yet because it was his griefe, that hee 
should die before he was fit to doe God the seruice 
hee desired ; and his friends desire, that beeing so 
fit as hee was for his service, hee might (if it had 
been possible) neuer have died at all ; thearfore 
his booke was bould to thrust itselfe into that 
world which the Author of it had lately left, thereby 



MEMOEIAL-INTEODUCTIOK". 1 9 

to satisfye both his Makers desire, in doing the 
chnrch of God some seruice ; and his friends griefe, 
in not suffering him altogether to lie dead. 

And truely what better seruice can it doe, then 
to persuade with reason, since Authoritie forces 
not, our young ]N"eophytes to abide awhile in the 
schooles of the Prophets, at Bethel, before they 
presume to enter the Temple at Hierusalem ; and 
if reason can doe little with them, because happily 
they want it, yet let his example (an argument 
that prevails much with the common people, of 
whome such prophets are the tayle) make them at 
least see, and confesse, though they know not 
how to amend, theii^ fault. Ten yeares had hee 
lined in the Uniuersitie, eight languages had hee 
leart, and taught his tongue so many seueral waies 
by which to expresse a good heart; watching 
often, daily exercising, alway studying, in a 
word, making an end of himselfe in an ouer-fer- 
uent desire to benefit others ; and yet, after hee 
had, as it wear out of himself, sweat out all this 
oyle for his lampe, after hee had with the sunne 
ran so many heauenly races, and when the sunne 
was laied abed by his labours, after hee had burnt 
out so many candles to giue his minde light 
(hauing al waies S. Paul's querie in his minde 
Tt9 7rpo9 Tuvja LKavos) hee neuer durst adventure 



20 MEMORIAL-INTEODTTCTION. 

to doe that, after all these studies done, and ended, 
which our young novices, doeing nothing, eoumpt 
nothing to doe: but still thought himselfe as 
unfit, as hee kniew all men weare unworthy 
of so high an honour, as to be the Angells of God. 

I could wish that he had left behinde him, if 
not all his learning, yet some of his modesty to 
be diuided among these empty sounding vessels, 
that want both; but since in him so great 
examples of piety, knowledge, industrie, and 
unaffected modesty are all fallen so deeply asleep, 
as I am afraid we shall hardly find in any of his 
age the like, (which I speak not to deny iust 
praise to the lining; but who will not afford a 
fiew flowers to strowe the cophine of the dead ?) 
thear was no way to awaken them, and in them 
him, but by layeing them up, not with him in his 
graue, but in these immortal monuments of the 
presse, the lining Tombes proper to dead learning, 
wherein these flowers may line, though their roote 
be withered, and though the trunke be dead, the 
branches flowrish. 

Let rich men therefore in the guilded sepulchres 
and proud monuments of their death, beg for the 
memory of their Hues : the righteous shall be had 
in euerlasting remembrance, without any such 
proud beggary ; nor shall he euer be beholding to 



MBMOEIAL-INTEODTJCTIOK. 21 

a dead stone for the matter; and good reason, 
Eighteonsness being a shadow of that divine 
substance, which hath in it no shadow of change 
much less of corruption : only I could wish their 
Hues wear as long as their memories ; that so 
this crooked age might haue as great store, as it 
hath need of them. 

G. F. 

Prefixed to the 'Bodleian' copy of Pownoll 
is this Latin M.S. Epitaphum. 

* Flos juvenmn, decus Oxonii, spes summa parentum 
Te tegit ante diem (matre parante) lapis.— 

Hoc satis est cineri : reliqua immortaHa coelo 
Condit amorque hominuin, condit amorque Dei.* 

"When our Fletcher left Cambetdge is not 
known; but probably it was shortly after 1610, 
the year of the publication of his Poem and also of 
the death of his Father — who it is to be feared did 
not live to read * Christ's Victorie, ' in print at 
least. That he was a Divinely- 'called' not merely 
Bishop-ordained ' minister of the Gospel ' is cer- 
tain. For in the invocation of his great Poem he 
adoringly acknowledges the one mighty change 
within, the gentle yet awful dower that alone 
warrants a man to accept the august office. As 
PicQfEAs has like definite and deep words con- 



22 MEMOEIAL-H^TEODTJCTIOlSr. 

ceming the same central tliiiig — which, will duly 
appear in his Memoir — it wonld almost seem as 
though the two brothers were moved, inclinedy 
and enabled to give themselyes to their Lord at 
thej same time. With hush of awe, not without 
white tears, one reads the goldenly precious self- 
revelation, modest but frank, frank because con- 
fiding. They must find place here : 

" The obsequies of Him that could not die 

And death of hfe, ende of eternitie, 

How worthily He died, that died vnworthily ; 

Is the first flame wherewith my whiter Muse 
Doth bnme in heauenly love, such love to tell. 
O Thou that didst this holy fire infuse, 
Aud taught'st this brest, hut late the graue of hell, 
Wherein a hlind^ and dead heart liiCd^ to swell 

With better thoughts, send downe those lights that 
lend 

Knowledge, how to begin, and how to end 
The loue, that neuer was, nor euer can be pend.' * 

Thus baptized with Fire ^from the Altar' he became 
a servant- Shepherd under the Owner-shepherd. 

ruLLEE says ^^ He was at last (by exchange of 
his living) settled in Suffolk." On this "Willmott 
observes ^^ It seems improbable that he would 



*Parti., s. 1, 3. 



MEM0EIAL-INTE0DX7CTI0N. 23 

have relinquished any other preferment for a 
situation which is supposed to have hastened the 
period of his death;" and he continues ^^ [He] 
did not live long to reap the advantage of his 
preferment ; the unhealthiness of the situation 
combined vdth the ignorance of his parishoners, to 
depress his spirits and exhaust his constitution ; 
a lonely village in the maritime part of Suffolk, 
more than two hundred years ago, had few conso- 
lations to offer to one accustomed to the refined 
manners and elegant occupations of an University. 
We are told by Puller in the quaint manner for 
which he is remarkable, that Fletcher's * clownish 
and low-parted parishioners (having nothing but 
their shoes high about them) valued not their 
pastor according to his worth, which disposed him 
to melancholy and hastened his dissolution.' "* 

* As before, p. 67 : " He may have been " suggests Will- 
mo tt here, ^'presented to the living by Sir Eobert 
Naunton, whose family were the patrons of the Church 
and had their residence in the parish. Naunton was 
Public Orator during several years of Fletcher's 
residence at Cambridge, and being himself a member 
of Trinity was, probably, well acquainted with his 
poetry and genius." On this, in a little Paper which 
appeared in the Ipswich Journal, (March 12th, 1853) a 
local Writer adds *' If Scipio departed from Home to 



24 MEMOEIAL-rsrTRODTJCTION. 

We are reminded of Heebick's like experience 
among his ^ clownish ' Devonshire parishioners. 
Unfortunately the * Eegisters ' of Aldeeton — the 
^living' of Fletcher — only go back to 1674; so 
that there are no accessible records to get at 
Eacts and dates. 

While * Eector ' I do not donbt he discharged 
faithfully the functions of his office ; and his prose 
in the form of ' Epistles' and * Prefaces* already 
given, and those which precede his Poem, should 
alone warrant us in concluding that he had preach- 
ing-power. Put besides it is our rare happiness 
to have before us a copy — believed to be unique — 
of a prose treatise by our Worthy, that gives us in 
all likelihood the substance of a series of sermons. 
The title-page of this solitary copy is awanting ; 
and all search and re-search have failed to trace 
another — ^but from the references to Bacok under 



^ his residence in some remote locality, it was but 
natural that he should sigh for the companionship of 
his beloved Lselius." It is discreditable in no common 
degree to Suffolk that an appeal by the (then) Eector 
for funds in order to place a marble tablet in the wall 
of the ' old Eectory ' in memory of Fletcher, remains 
un-responded to and the pious project unperformed. 
Shame where is thy blush ? 



MEMOEIAl-INTEODTJCTION. 25 

his title of ^Lord Yerulam, YiscoTint Saint 
Albones/ it cannot have been earlier than 1621 — 
the year of the creation of St. Albans — nor later 
than 1623, the year of its author's death.^' As 
this Eook has escaped the knowledge of all our 
Eletcher's previous Biographers, I shall give 
first of all the * Epistle Dedicatory,' and thereafter 
extracts illustrative of its thought and style. 

The ^ Epistle * — as already noted — refers to 
'favours' conferred by Bacoi^. It is saddening 
that we cannot know more of their nature. Was 
it the * presentation' to Alderton? and the gra- 
ciousness ofit? f 

The ' Epistle ' is as follows : 

'To the right Honorable and Eeligious, Sir 
Eoger Townshend, Knight Earonet ; J all grace and 
peace. 



* I owe my use of this precious volume to my accomplislied 
friend George W. Napier, Esq., of Alderley Edge, near 
Manchester. It is daintily covered witli satin and 
silver wire-work in flowers — ^which kind of binding 
is usually ascribed to the Nuns of Little Gidding. 

t See Postscript at end of Memorial-Introduction. 

X Sir John Townshend, Bart, M. P., married Anne, 
eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Nathanael Bacon, 
K. B., half-brother of the Bacon. The eldest son of 
this marriage was the Eoger of this Dedication, 



26 MEMOKIAL-Iiq^TEODrCTIOISr. 

Honourable Sir, 

Eenefits, they say, are alwayes best giuen when 
they are most concealed, but thanks when they are 
made most knowne. Giue my priuate estate 
leaue therefore to borrow the Art of the Printer, 
which is the publike Tongue of the learned, to 
expresse my selfe (though with no other learning 
then what your kinde respects haue taught mee) 
most gratefuU ynto you : who indeed am bound, 
though principally, yet not onely to your 
Honoured selfe, but totj Gentj tum^ to the worthy 
Lady your mother, the religious Knight, Sir 
Nathaniel, your second Father, & without 
thought, not beyond my desire, to your most 
noble & learned Yncle, the Eight Honorable 
Francis Lord Yerulam, Viscount Saint Albones, 
my free and very Honourable Benefactor, whose 
gift, as it was worthy his bestowing, so was it 

created a Baronet in 1617. From liim descend the 
present Marquis Townshend, Yiscount Sydney, Baron 
Bayning, &c. (See ' Notes and Qneries ' 4tli Series, 
May 23rd, 1868, p. 499). Phineas also dedicates his 
* LocnstsB ' to Sir Roger, and his English ^ Locusts ' to 
Lady Townshend. See our edition of Phineas 
Fletcher, in loco. John Yates dedicates his * Saints* 
Sufferings and Sinners' Sorrowes (1631) to Sir Roger 
Townsend, &c. Gr. 



MEMOEIAL-rN"TEODTJCTION-. 27 

speedily sent, and not tediously sued for; Honour- 
ably giuen, not bought with shame, to one whom 
he neuer knew or saw, but onely heard kindly 
slaundered with a good report of others, and 
opinion conceiued by himselfe of sufficiencie 
and worth. For by your Eauours I confesse, my 
estate is something, but the sence of my pouertie 
much more increased. For if we may beleeue 
JSTeros wise Maister and Martyr; * There is none 
so poore, as he who cannot requite a benefit:^* but 
I am glad your Estates will be alwayes beyond 
any retaliating f kindnesses of mine who could not, 
indeed, without doing you much iniury, wish 
my selfe able to make you amends. 

As therefore Aristippus came to Dionysius, so 

doe I to J0U*^7rl Tiv jbieTaBivffeiv tov e^o; kol jmeraXT]' 
-^eaOai u)v jult] e^w Hauing received what I wanted, 
to returne what I had. J Though in trueth this small 
present may bee better sayed to bee giuen by you 
to others, then by my self to you, who thought it 
worthy of more mens reading then your owne, 



* Seneca. Gr. 

t An example of a now disused sense of this word, such 

as illustrates and confirms Trench's remarks on it in 

his well-known ' Study of Words.' G. 
X Diogenes Laertius, Vita Aristippi ii. 77. Gr. 



28 MEMOEIAL-INTEODTJCTION". 

whicli I pray God it may be. Surely if there be 
any worth in it, it is in the dignitie of the matter, 
and the fitnesse of it, for our nature and times. 
The matters are the Grounds, Exercise and Eeward 
of the faithful!, Heauenly Light, Eodily labour, 
Spirituall rest. The first of which brings with it 
light for our Soules ; the second, Health for our 
bodies, and the third for them both eternal 
Blessednesse. Eut in our times there is three 
vertues are so great strangers, in which there are 
so many euill heartes of vnbeliefe, all standing 
ready to depart from the lining God, that wee 
had need to offer a holy violence to our nature, 
and to fall out with our times, that fall so fast 
away from God, or else it is to be feared least the 
tide and streame of them both carry vs not into the 
riuers of Paradise, there to bee landed vpon the 
mountaines of our saluation, but into the riuers of 
Brimstone, whether all are wasted that depart 
from God : as himselfe telleth vs ; ' Depart from 
mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire. 

And so much the more need had wee, that line 
in this last Age of the world, to looke to the infir- 
mitie of our natures and diseases of the time: 
because natural infirmities are alwayes greatest 
Tyrants in our Age, and it is no otherwise in this 
old world, then in old persons : If we were 



MEMORIAL-INTEODirCTIOIir. 29 

borne weake sighted, it is a venture but in age 
a great dimnesse, if not a totall blindnesse doe not 
befall vs. If a lame hand by nature hath disabled 
the actions of our youth ; the hand which in youth 
could doe little, will doe nothing in our age ; if 
we have traduced a personal inclination from our 
parents to any vice, it is a grace if that inclina- 
tion grow not to an affection in our youth, and in 
our age to a habite. So fast grow the ill weedes 
of JS'ature when IS; ature it selfe decay es in vs. 

Ifow wee cannot bee ignorant that in the very 
Spring of nature, these three strong infirmities 
were seeded in vs. The first vpon the effacing of 
Gods Image, a dim me eye-sight or darknesse in 
our soule : the second a lame hand or idlenesse 
in the body, which grew when Mortalitie first 
broke in vpon vs, and left our nature consumed 
of that fijst-bome strength it then flowrished 
with: bringing in vpon our labour an accursed 
sweat, vpon our sweat, wearinesse, and conse- 
quently faynting, and languishing the whole 
body with vnrest, and disease :. The third vpon the 
losse of our heavenly inheritance, an inclination 
and affection of the whole man to such a happi- 
nesse, as wee cannot build for our selues, out of the 
beautie and delights of this world : which Salomon 
happily alluded vnto Eccles. 3. 11. where speaking 



30 MEMOEIAL-IJs^TEOBTJCTIQ]!^. 

of Humane happinesse, to reioyce, and doe good, 
that is, to eate and to drinke, and to enioy the good 
of all our Labour, verse, 3, ("Wliich questionlesse is 
therefore lawfull, because it is there sayd to bee the 
gift of Grod) hee telleth vs; that, ^ God hath made 
every thing beautifull in his season, and hath set 
tilVn ^^^w/?^, the worlde, as it is translated, or the 
desire of perpetuitie in their heartes, so that no 
man can finde out the worke that God maketh 
from the beginning to the end.' "Whereas it seemes 
to me, Salomon allowing vs this Humane felicitie, 
as good in it selfe, yet secretly accuseth it (by 
reason of the immoderate affection, and desire of 
perpetuitie wee cast after it) for blinding the eye 
of our consideration so farre, as thereby wee cannot 
finde out the worke that God maketh from the 
beginning to the end, which doub[t]lesse^ can bee 
no other then his worke of our Eedemption, 
purposed from all etemitie in Christ our Lord 
who therefore as himself is called TrpwroTOKo^ 7rd(Trj9 
K7i(Teu)9, the first-borne of all creatures, so his 
day is cald JVouissimus Dierum^ the last of all 
dayes, he onely being (as himselfe witnesseth) A 
and Q and the First f and the Last, the beginning of 



* Misprinted '■ doublesse.' G. 
t Misprinted ' Frst.* G. 



MEMOEIAL-IIS'TEODUCTIOIT. 31 

all things and the ende of all things Colos. i., ^ 15 ; 
and in this worke onely consists the knowledge of 
onr perfit happines wherein is both perpetuitie and 
sufficiency, which work of Gods, most men therefore 
cannot finde out, because they acquiet their desires 
with this humane felicitie, and lie downe ynder 
Issachars blessing, which indeed, is but a cursory 
and viatorie happinesse, seruing vs onely for the 
time and by the way. 

These then are the three great diseases of our 
soules, bodies, and persons : Blindnesse of Spirit, 
Idlenesse of Body, Loue and rest in the world ; 
which the beginning of the world, made by corrup- 
tion, naturaU ; and the Age of the world, by the 
second nature, and of custome, hath made delight- 
full to vs. And truely, if our owne experience did 
not teach vs how most men in our daies placed 
themselues in these infirmities, and with what 
delight wee are ignorant, idle, and enamored of the 
world : yet the Oracles of God would plainely 
euidence it vnto vs, wherein wee shall finde it 
prophecied of this last tempest of the world, that 
it should bee full of seducing Spirits to infidelitie, 
of idle busie bodyes, of loners of pleasures more 



* Misprinted < 11.' G. 



32 MEMOEIAL-INTEODTJCTION". 

then loners of God. To cure which three great 
diseases ^' of our natures, and our times I haue 
sent abroade by your perswasion (and therefore 
haue burdened you with the Patronage of it) 
this short Prsescript, which I pray God may 
worke by the power of his Spirit, soundnesse in 
YS. To the riches of whose grace, I most entirely 
commend you, and rest Your Worships in all 
hearty affection and Christian seruice 

Giles Pletskee. 

I now proceed to select such portions of the 
work itself — whose running title is ^^ The Eeward of 
the Paithfull" from texts enumerated belowf — as 
have arrested my attention in reading it. Taken as 
a whole it is scarcely worthy of a reprint ; but 
our gleanings will, it is believed, interest. The 
* verse ' bits will be found in their own place 
among the poems. I I submit our extracts seriatim 
from the commencement to the close : 



* Misprinted ^ diseased.' G. 

t Matthew v., 6, * They shall be satisfied,' p.p. 1-127; 
Genesis xxvi., 12, pp. 127-302; Acts x., 43, pp. 303- 
419 ; Epistle Dedicatory 6 leaves ; the severall argu- 
ments [imperfect] 2 leaves. 

J Mr. Napier's is the same copy referred to by Dr. Neale 
and Mr. Hazlitt. It is remarkable that this prose treatise 
of oux Poet should not have been known after Phineas's 



MEMOEIAL rNTBODGCTIOJr. 33 

(1) **So much almes, and often fasting & due 
payment of tithes, what goodnesse haue they, if 
the ahnes must bee trumpeted abroad, and the fast 
must set a sowre face ypon the matter, and the 
tithes must bee boasted of, and layed as it were in 
Gods dish, when he comes to pray before him in 
the Temple, as though God who giues him all, 
were beholding to him, for restoring him the tenth 
part of his owne?" (p. 9.) Again: — 

(2) '^ !N^ow it is a speech of our Sauiour which 
it may bee euery man remembers, but few men 
marke, when after fourty dayes fast in the wilder- 
nesse, he was tempted to satisfie his hunger by 
making bread of stones, he answered, That man 
liu'd not by bread onely, but by euery Word that 
proceeded out of the mouth of God. "Which speech 
though aprophane Ignorant will perhaps derisively^ 



Tvell-known verses giyen onward. It is much to be 
desired that another copy containing the title-page 
may be forthcoming. Meantime it is scarcely ever 
safe to designate any book unique^ e.g. after fully 
ten years waiting I have just happened on Zachart 
Catlin's ' Hid Treasure/ and at same time his 
translation of Ovid — ^books I had despaired of ever 
recovering ; and so it may be in any case. 
* Misprinted * derisonly.' G. 



34 MEMOEIAX-INTEODTJCTION'. 

scoffe at, as tMnkiiig it impossible to Hue by 
words, yet sucb words as proceed out of tbe mouth 
of God haue more vitall sweetnesse, and nourish- 
able sap in them, than all his corne, and oyle, and 
wine haue. Was not the whole world made by 
the word of God ? Was not the soule of euery 
reasonable creature made by the same word, and so 
imbreathed into the body of the first father of our 
humane nature ? and is now still infused into euery 
one of our bodies, when they are perfectly 
instrumented, and made fit for the soule to dwell 
in?'' (pp. 19—21.) Again:— 

(3) ^^ If a man digging in a field, find a mine, 
we cal this fortune : but a mine must bee first 
there by nature, before any can finde it there by 
fortune. And therefore fortune that comes 
alwayes after nature, cannot bee the cause of 
natui-e.'' (p. 24.) Again: — 

(4) ^^"What nature in earth obserues the dif- 
ferent motions of the heavenly bodies, and admires 
the methodicall wisedom of God in them, and 
thinkes vpon his couenant of mercy, when he 
sees the token of it shining in the waterie cloud 
(sweetly abusing the same waters to bee a token 
of his mercy, which before were the instrument of 
his iust revenge.'' (p. 30, 31.) Again: 



MEMOEIAL-Iiq'TEODIICTIOK'. 35 

(5) *' Whose eye lookes beyond tlie bright hilles 
of time, and there beholds eternity, or sees a spiri- 
tual! world beyond this body, esteeming that farre 
discoasted region, his native country,^ but onely 
man? (p. 31.) Again: — 

(6) So with the body. Ent we cannot drinke 
too much of our spirituall rocke, nor eate too much 
of our heauenly Manna, which after we haue 
feasted our hearts with, we shall find noe more 
hunger, or thirst; feele noe more iniuries of age, or 
time ; feare noe more spoiles of mortality, or death. 
]N'either is the soule nourished by this diuine food, 
as the body is, by wasting that whereby it selfe is 
preserued, and consuming that to maintaine it selfe, 
whereby it selfe is kept from corruption : but as 
the sight of al eyes is preserued and perfected by 
the light of the Sunne, whose beames can neuer be 
exhaust, so our spiritual life is nourished by the 
participation of the life of Christ which is indeed 
Trrjrid^tov ^torj, annona ccdi^ the flower of heauen, 
neuer engrost by possessing, nor lost by vsing, nor 
wasted by nourishing, nor spent by enioying but 
hath that heauenly, and ynconsumable nature in it 
(being to nourish immortall soules) that it pre- 



* Mispriated ' countey.' G. 



36 MEMOEIAX-INTEODTJCTION. 

semes al without decaying itselfe, it diuides it 
selfe to all without losse or diminution of it selfe ; 
it is imparted to all and replenished, and not 
impayred by any of those soules that banquet 
vpon it.'' pp.37 — 40.) Again: — 

(7) *^Like the twilight of an euening, or the 
first breake of day in which the shadows of earth, 
and the light of heauen are confused." (p. 42.) 
Again : — 

(8) " Makes vs of one spirit and one soule, as 
it were, with the Diuine being; not by the vnion 
of essence and information, but of inhabitance and 
participation.'' (p. 61.) Again: — 

(9) '' Eut when the morning of glory shall arise, 
wherein our soules shall awaken from the heauy 
eye-lid of our flesh, and the veyle of our body shall 
first be remoued, and after being depur'd from his 
drosse, be refined into a bright and spirituall body, 
wee shall then see God as he is." (pp. 73, 74.) 
Again: — 

(10) ^^ So that looke as you see the very bright 
image of the Sunne so reflected vpon the water 
somtimes, that the dull Element seemes to haue 
caught downe the very glorious body it selfe, to 
paint her watry face with, and lookes more like 
a part of heauen, then like it selfe ; who in the ab- 
sence of the Sunne, is all sabled with blacknesse 



MEMOEIAL-INTEt)DUCTION'. 37 

and darknesse, and sad obscurity ; but rpon the 
first beames of the heauenly body, is glazed with a 
most noble & illustrious brightnesse; so is it with 
our whole man. Eor when God shall thus imprint 
and strike him self e into our darke being, how 
beautifuU shall the feet of Grods saints bee? 
Esay 52. 7. What a Diadem of stars shall crowne 
their glorious heads ? Eeuelat. 12. How shall 
their amiable bodies shine in Sun-like Majesty ? 
Mat. 13. 4.'' (pp. 77, 78.) Again:— 

(11) " This carried the heart of olde Simeon into 
such a holy extasie of religious delight, that earth 
could hold him no longer, but he must needs, as 
it were, breake prison, and leape out of his olde 
body into heauen. what a desire of departure 
to it, doth a true sight of this saluation kindle ! 
^Lord,' sales he, ^now lettest,' &c. As if he 
should say. Lord, now the child is borne, let the 
olde man die, now thy son is come, let thy seruant 
depart, now I haue seene thy salvation, let mee 
goe to enioy it. ISTow I haue beheld the human- 
ity of thy Sonne, what is worth the looking ypon, 
but the diuinity of such a person, who is able to 
make my young Lord heere euen proud of his 
Humilitie. Tor so great a ioy of spirit can neuer 
be thrust vp into so small a Yessell, as an olde 
shrunke-\^ body of earth is. Since therefore I 

D 



38 MEMOEIAL-INTEODUCTIOJiT. 

haue testified of thy Christ, since I haue made an 
end of my dying note, and snng thee my Christ- 
masse song ; since I hane scene thee, thou holy 
one of Israeli, whom no flesh can see & line, 
what haue I to do to line, Lord ? What shonld 
I weare this olde garment of flesh any more? 
Thou hast left thy fatnesse off, thou faire Oliue 
Tree and the oyle of it hath made mee haue a 
cheerefull countenance : thou hast forsaken thy 
sweetnesse, thou beautifuU Yine, and thy fruit 
hath warm'd thine olde Seruant at the very hart. 
^N'ow therfore being thou hast powred thy new 
wine into this old vessell, giue the olde bottle 
leaue to breake, let me depart in peace ; for I 
haue enough, I haue seen, mine eyes haue scene 
thy saluation. ' ' (pp . Ill — 114.) Again : — 

(12) ^^Exod. 20. 9. . .which is not to bee ynder- 
stood as a Permission, but as a Precept : as though 
God gaue ys onely leave, & not charge to labour. 
Por hee sayes not, sixe daies thou Maist labour, but 
six daies thou Shalt labour." (p. 131.) Again : — 

(13) ^^ Are not al things imbrightned with vse, 
and rustled with lying still ? Let but the little 
Bee become our mistresse. Is shee not alwaies 
out of her artificiall l^ature, either building her 
waxen Cabinet, or flying abroad into the flowry 
Meadowes or sucking honev from the sweete 



MEMOKIAL-INTEODUCTION. 39 

plants, or loading her weake thighes with waxe to 
build with, or stinging away the theeuish Droan 
that would faine hine it selfe among her labours, 
and Hue ypon her sweete sweat? Ignauum^ fucos, 
pecus a prmsepihus arcent^^ And shal this Bittle 
creature, this l^aturall goode h.ous wife thus set 
her selfe to her businesse, and shall we droane 
away our time in idlenesse, and which alwaies 
followes it, vicious Huing?'' (pp. 138, 139.) 
Again : — 

(14) It is iQdeede a naturall Truth, Omne Cor- 
pus naturah quiescit in loco proprio, Euery nat- 
urall body is quiescent in has o^nie proper place : 
and yet wee see though all gladly rest in their 
owne regions, and inuade not the confines of their 
neighbour Elements, yet they are alwayes mouing 
and coasting about in their owne orbes and cir- 
cuits, thereby teaching vs to labour euery man in 
the circle of his owne calling, and not to busie- 
body out abroad with other newe workes. The Aire 
breakes not into the quarters of heauen and yet, 
wee see, it is alwayes fann'd from place to place, 
and neuer sleepes idly in his owne regions : the 
reason is, because otherwise it would soone putrifie 



Virgil. Georg iv. 168. Gr. 



40 MEMOEIAL-INTEODIJCTIOK. 

it selfe and poyson ys all witli the stinking breath 
of it, did not the dinine pronidence of God drine it 
about the "World with his Windes, that so it might 
both preserue it selfe and serue to preserue us, 

which otherwise it could neuer doe So 

that in a word, euery thing moues for man, & 
should man only himself e be idle and stand still." 
(pp. 143—146.) More fully :— 

(15) * ^ A f aithf ull Minister is a great lab ourer . I 
would not willingly make comparisons betweene 
him and the husbandman, and say his labour is 
beyond theirs ; but this I may safely say, that 
God himselfe compares him not onely to a husband- 
man, but to shew the greatnesse of his labour, 
to euery calling indeed that is most sweated with 
Industrie and toyle. I know all men thinke their 
owne callings most laborious, but whether thinke 
you it easier to plow vpon hard ground, or vpon 
hard stones ? whether to commit your seed to 
those furrowes that will return you fruitfull 
thankes ; or those that for your labor will spoyle 
your seed, & requite you with reproch and 
slander? whether to such ground as is good, and 
naturally opens her bosome to drinke in the dewes 
of heauen that fall upon her, and gladly receiues 
the Sunne beames shed from God to warm and 
make fruitfull the seede credited to her wombe, 



MEMORIAL-INTROBTJCTIOlsr. 41 

or such ground as neuer thirsts after the watering 
of ApoUos, though as Moses speakes (Eeut. 32. 2.) 
his words drop as the raine, and his speech distill 
as the dew ; neuer can indure the light of heauen 
to shine vpon it, but lies alwayes in darkenesse and 
in the shadowes of death? yet such ground 
(stones I should haue sayd) did the diuine cou- 
rage of Stephen meet with in lerusalem (Act. 7. 
59), such S. Paul wrought on at Lystra (Act. 14 
19.), such Moses and Aaron and losua toyled 
vpon in the wildemes (IS'um. 14. 10.) such the 
Prophets (Matt. 21, 25.) such the Prince of the 
Prophets found in his owne inheritance, though 
he had before (as we see in Esay 5. 2.) pickt 
all the stones himselfe out of it (John 8, 59). 
"What one difficultie or danger is the roughest 
calling assaulted with, that his is not. Does the 
plowmans labour know no end, but is it as the 
Poet speakes of it : 

Labor actus in orbem, 

Quique yd. se sua per vestigia voluitur ? * 

So is his. Does the Shepheard, the sun^bumt 
and frosted shepheard, watch oner his flockes 



More accurately " Eedit agricolis labor actus in orbem, 
Atqueinse sua per vestigia vol vitur annus",— Virgil 
Geor^ u., 401-402. G. 



42 MEMORTAL-INTEODtretrON, 

by niglit, strengthen the diseased, set apart the 
sound, binde vp the brnised, seek out the 
lost, rescue those that are preyed vpon? So 
does he. Marches the soldier before the face 
of death ? lines hee among the pikes of a 
thousand dangers? walks he throgh his owne 
wounds and blood ? So does he : but as the 
ground this spirituall plowman tils is ^harder, 
so the wolves & Lyons this Shepheard watches 
against are fiercer, and the Armies he graples 
with of another temper then such as are made 
like himselfe of flesh and blood; being Powers 
and Principalities, spirituall wickednesses, & 
worldly gouernors, one of whom could in a 
nights space strike dead the lines of a hundred 
fourescore and fine thousand souldiers at once, all 
armed and embattayld together Isay 37. 36. Let 
all the Princes of valour that euer lined bring, into 
the field their most tried and signall warriour, 
whose face and brest stand thickest with the 
honourable scarres^ of braue aduentures ; if I doe 
not single out to encounter him one souldier 
that beares in his body the markes of the Lord 



* The origiaal has ^ honourable starres,' but * markes * 
onward, shews it to be a misprint for ' scarres * a» 
above. G. 



MEMOBIAL-I^^TROBUCTION. 43 

lesus, who shall haue broken through an Iliad 
of more dangers and perils, then he, let Gath and 
Ascalon triumph oner Sion once againe, & let 
it be said that a second and more noble Saul is 
falne vpon his high places, then euer yet fell 
before. For wee shall finde him all the world 
oner in labours more abundant, in ioumeys more 
often, in more perils in the city, in the wilder- 
ness, in the sea, more often in watchings, and 
fastings, in hunger and thirst, in cold & naked- 
nesse, in prison more frequent, and ofter in 
wearinesse and death 2 Cor. 11. 23. &c. Let 
not him therefore that sowes the earth with his 
labor, slander the spirituall tilth of our soules 
with lazie thoughts. Alas ! in the time of peace 
contempt is the greatest haruest we reape and in 
the tempests of persecution, our blood is the first 
seed is sowne in the Church." (pp. 155 — 162.) 
Again : — 

(16) ** Isaac (1) a religious person sowes. (2) 
sowes in a time of famin and dearth (3) ground of 
strangers (4) reward." Again: — 

(17) *^ What would one of our small heires say, 
should I now turne Farmoui\ I thanke God I 
haue beene brought vp after another fashion, and 
haue ground enough of mine owne to Hue upon 
by other mens labours. Well I make no question 



44 MEMOEIAL-INTEODUCTIOI?^. 

but Isaac was as well bronglit vp as such, idle, out 
of calling gentlemen, and yet lie plowes, and sowes, 
not only anatber mans ground, but tbe ground of 
straungers, where hee could expect nothing but 
hard dealing, which indeed hee found." (pp. 171, 
172.) Again: — 

(18) *^ God His are no Court-promises 

prodigally made, and purposely forgotten, (p. 177.) 
Again : — 

(19) ^^ All these mischief es happen not to rich 
men, but to men that will bee rich, not to men 
that haue money but tc men that loue money and. 
set their heart ypon it. ^ If riches increase,' &c., 
sales Dauid. A man may haue riches, but riches 
must not haue the man." (p. 183.) — 

(20) '^ It may be thou art godly and poore. 
Tis well : but canst thou tell whether, if thou 
wert not poore, thou wouldst be godly? Sure 
God knows ts better then wee ourselues doe, and 
therefore can best fit the estate to the person. '* 
(pp. 211, 212.) Again:— 

(21) * ' Eest therefore thy self e content with that 
estate God hath set thee in, that is best for thee, 
if thou beest a childe of God, and it is not Gods- 
order to giue thee his blessings to hurt thee witii>" 
(p. 212,) Again: — 



MEMOEIAL-INTEOD^CTIO]^. 45 

(22) ^^ A covetous man is the poorest man aline. 
For must not lie needs be poore, whom God him- 
self e doth not satisfie?" (p. 218.) Again: — 

(23) ^^But indeed to say true. A couetous man 
that rauines and snatches at other mens goods 
is no more properly in Gods sight a rich man, 
then we would call him that had stollen a great 
summe of mony from another man, rich. "We 
shall doe him no wrong if we call him a rich 
theefe. For yee know wee neuer reckon the goods 
of theeues their owne goods, because as soon as 
they are taken notice of, their goods are all seiz'd 
vpon to the Eiags yse : And so many times as 
so one as God sends out his pale Pursiuant to attach 
this couetous wretch, the goods presently are 
disposed of, all [as] God will have them : sometimes 
it may be to his honest heire, or perhaps to the 
destruction of such as inherit with his sinne his 
substance, as the rich Epuloes Brothers : but many 
times to the building of Hospitals or the erecting 
of Grammar Schooles, or putting out of Prentises or 
redeeming of Prisoners or founding of CoUedges 
or releeuing of maimed Soldiers, or making of good 
waies, such as himself e never walkt in (or which 
now is a rare point of pietie) in doing some good 
to the Church of God, by restoring to the right 
vse, vsurped and impropriate tithes, or buying 



46 MEllkrOEIAL-INTEOBTJCTTON. 

them from the dead hands they lie in, and laying 
them vpon Gods Altar, that feedes not ynder the 
Gospel any mortmaines, such as were the hands of 
the Eomane Clergie; but such as are more free, and 
active in the seruice of the Prince, and Common- 
wealth, then any in the whole bodie politique of 
double their abilitie, and strength.'' (pp. 220 — 
223.)— 

(24) ^^ Gods love is the beginning, and thy 
glory is the last end, the loue of God will bring 
thee to : but there be many meanes betweene the 
beginning and the ende, his loue and thy glory, 
rirst, God's loue elects thee to be iustified, and to 
worke thy iustification he cals thee, and that thou 
maiest be called, he infuses into thy heart faith 
in Christ, and that thou mightst beleeue, he causes 
thee to heare the word, that thou mightst heare, 
his Prophets must preach it to thee, before they 
can preach, they must be sent : So that in briefe, 
The Minister is sent to preach, he preaches that 
thou maist heare, thou hearest, that thou mightst 
be called, thou art called to beleeue in Christ, 
thou beleeuest that thou maiest be iustified, being 
iustified, thou art sure of thy Crowne of Glorie, and 
this glory the loue of God by all these meanes sets 
as it were vpon thy head. Betweene therfore 
our glory which is the end, & Gods loue which 



MEMORIAL-IITTEODTJCTION. 47 

is the beginning and cause of it, many interiacent 
nieanes, you see, are cast betweene." (pp. 239 — 
241.) Again: — 

(25) ''If tbe Sunne be risen, wee sball finde him 
sooner by his beames vpon the tops of the Moun- 
taines, then in the Orient of Heauen it selfe ; and so 
the Loue of God is sooner discouered to rise in thy 
heart by the beames of Grace it there shows 
abroad, then by the flame of it self that shines in 
his owne breast in heauen. If then grace im- 
brighten thy heart, thou maistfrom Grace assure thy 
selfe of Gods loue, and thine own glorie : but if thou 
findest in thy selfe an impenitent and incorrigible 
heart, thou mayst then iustly worke ypon thy selfe 
a sence of thy misery : I dare not say thou art 
sure of Gods wrath, but I must say, except thou 
repent, and God change thy heart, thou art yet in 
a fearefull and lost estate ; say not therefore thus. 
God hath cast me out from his fauour, therefore 
my heart is obdurate, impenitent, incorrigible. 
Por this is to argue from that thou knowest not, 
whether God fauors thee or no : but thus rather, 
My heart is obdurate, impenitent, incorrigible, 
therefore if I so continue, God wiU surely cast 
mee out from his fauour and presence. And this 
thou maist securely doe, because thine owne con- 



48 MEMOBIAL-HS-TEODUCTION. 

science is both a witnesse and a iudge of thy life, 
whether it be impenitent or not." (pp. 251 — 3.) 

(26) '^J^orwas it a miracle to see rich mens 
daughters (ynacquainted with new tires, and most 
fashionable dresses) bnsie themselues in laborious 
(and not curious needle) work, but it was ordinary 
in that old world to meete the young and beautifull 
Eachel tending her fathers sheepe, and watering 
the flocke, and Eebecca with a pitcher vpon her 
shoulder, drawing water both for her owne yse, and 
to Water the Camels of Abrahams servant, an 
office that our nice virgins, who dresse vp them- 
selues like so many gay silke-worms would thinke 
scorne of." (pp.262 — 3.) Again: — 

(27) " Thus were the opinions of the old world, 
but it is a world to see now the prodigious 
change of l!Tature, when not onelie most men count 
Husbandrie a base and sordid businesse, vnfit to 

• soyle their hands with : but some, who thinkes his 
breast tempered of finer clay then ours of the 
vulgar sort, call such as haue spent their times in 
the studies of Diuinity, no better then rixosum dis- 
putatorum genus quorum vix in coquendis olerihus 
consilium adinittit,''^ (pp. 274-275). Again: — 
(28.) ^^ Others bestow their time in Legall, and 
Callings vsefull to the Common- wealth, but as they 
abuse them, neyther hoAest, nor iustifiable before 



MEMOilIAL-i:D^TEODUCTIOI?'. 49 

God. Snch are our Tap-lionses, and Gaming Innes, 
I meane not harbouring and viatory Innes, whicli 
questionless, in fit places, and where Justice is 
neere at hand, if rightly Ysed, are not onely law- 
full and profitable, but necessaiie and honest : for 
to lodge weary Trauellers as Kahab did the Spies 
of Israel, or to let the poore labouring man to 
have iust allowance of bread and drinke for his 
money can be accounted no other then necessary 
relief: but for our Tipling Inne.s in small and 
vntract Hamlets, without which our Country- 
Diuels of drunkennesse, Elasphemy, Gaming, 
Lying, and Queaning, could amongst vs finde 
no harbor (though perhaps in places of more 
resort they haue credit enough to be entertained 
in fairer lodgings) they are eyther the Diuels 
yncleane "Warehouses for his spiritual wicked- 
nesses to trade in ; or in our plaine world hee hath 
no trafS.que at all.'' (pp. 291-93). 

(29) ^ It was Eliahs speech from God to Ahab; 
* Hast thou slaine, and also taken possession ; and 
it may well be his Churches to either of theii's. 
Hast thou taken possession, and wilt thou slay 
also ? not the body once, but for euer the soules, 
of innocent men. Let no man quarrell with me, 
as Ahab did with Eliah. ' Hast thou found me 
mine Enemie?' If he doe, I must borrow Saint 



50 MEMOEIAX-INTEOBirCTrOJr. 

Panles answer * Am I thine enemy, because I tell 
thee the Truth ? l^o (I speake not out of rash, 
but charitable zeale) thou art thine owne Enimie, 
thou art Gods Enimie, thou art the enimie of his 
Church. Eor if thou didst loue him, thou wouldst 
feede his flocke, feede his Sheepe, feede his Lambs. 
If thou diddest loue his Church, thou wouldest 
shew thy loue by thy obedience to it. Who 
enioynes euery one eleuen moneths residence vpon 
his cure, and graunts him but one month's 
bsence, whereas it is a venture, but without long 
search you may finde one that absents himselfe 
elevuen moneths, and is resident but once a yeare, 
and that is perhaps at haruest, or peraduenture 
at Easter, when his owne, and not so much the 
Churchs profit calles him to his benefit, not his 
Benefice. He would being resident preach euery 
Sunday, as shee commaunds him in her 45. Cannon. 
Hee would labour to conuince Heretiques (which 
now in his absence growes yppon her) or see them 
at least censured as shee bids him in her 65. and 
66. Canons. He would keepe the sound in safety, 
and visit the sicke, as shee directs him in her 67. 
Canon. Thus he would do, and not laugh at 
them that did thus, and would haue him doe so, 
as men more precise, than wise, of more heate 
than discretion. I am not so intemperate as to 



MEMOEIAL-IXTEODUCTION. 51 

rage against all JSTon-resideiicy, wHcli in case of 
insnfficiencie of one Lining, or publiqne, and 
necessarie imployment, either in Yniversities or 
Court, mnst needs be allowable: but either our 
Church, it selfe is precise, that bids him doe thus : 
or he that does the contrary without any ouer- 
ballancing reason, prooues himselfe a Eastard, and 
none of hir Children. A double wound it is our 
Church receiues from these men. For as them- 
selues haue not the grace to correct their owne 
sinne, so they haue commonly in their roomes 
certaine vnder-curats, so grossely ignorant, as not 
to know theirs. They that know nothing them- 
selues, are set by these to teach others, of whom 
we cannot say dies diei, but nox nocti indicat 
scientiam. One night teaches another, a blinde 
Prophet a blinde People." (pp. 397-402.) 
Again : — 

(30) " Those Ecclesiastical home-Droanes of 
our owne, which hiue themseiues vnder the 
shadow of our Church (the wicked thiefe money, 
that siluer dropsie, that now raigns in vnconsion- 
able Patrons, making way for them), and so beare 
indeed either no witnesse to Christ at all, or but 
very slight, and rash witnesse " (p. 397). 

He is very severe on non-residence at page 399 
seqq: as earlier (page 371) he had passionately 



52 MEMOEIAL-INTBODTJCTION. 

exclaimed (28) '^0 tliat there were not in Christs 
militant Churcli, as there were in Othoes military 
Campe, so many men, so few Soldiers, so many 
professors, so few Christians." 

That he could wield the lash effectively has 
akeady appeared : hut here is an out-hurst on 
contemporary literature somewhat unexpected : 

(31) '^ Among the crowde of this ranke (idlers) 
wee may thrust in our idle pamphleteers and 
loose poets, no hotter than the priests of Yenus, 
with the rahhle of stage-players, halleters and 
circumferaneous iidlers and hrokers : all which 
if they were cleane taken out of the world there 
would hee little misse of them." 

(32) ^^I do not deny hut that God is ahle to 
perfect his power in these mens weaknesse : [The 
under- curates left hy non-residents] Por it is not 
impossible for our spirituall Sampson (as hee ouer- 
came his enemies, and was refreshed with a iawe 
of the seely heast) so to make the waters of Life 
spring between the teeth of these simple creatures : 
hut these unsent Eunners might do well to content 
themselues with one Cure, and not to he too hnsie 
in trudging between many, as some of them are." 
(p. 404.) 

(33) '' ITey ther doe I denie but that such trading 
Preachers may find work enough for their mouths 



MEMORIAL IISTTEODTJCTIO^. 53 

l)y making other mens labours rnnne through 
ihem. Ent this is to get their Lining by the sweat 
of other men, and to wipe it off to their owne 
l)rowes" (p. 405). 

He then gets ynlgar, abusive, and illogical: 

(34) Pardon mee (right deerly beloned in our 

Lord and Sauiour) if when Thorns and Thistles 

grow ypon Gods Altar, as the Prophet Hosea 

speakes, I am forced to vse a little fire of Zeale 

to consume them.'' (p. 413.) 

Besides these fuller specimens I have marked 
a number of brief ones containing unusual words 
and turns of expression : e.g. 

(1) The name of the wicked 'rots' — '^And 
therefore our Sauiour in the Storie of Lazarus, and 
Dives, keepes the poore mans name aliue to the 
worldes end, but industriously leaues the rich 
mans name at vncertaintie, with ' There was a 
certaine rich man.' " (p. 207.) 

(2) ** Purpled in glory by the bloud royall of 
r deereLord" (p. 239.) 

(3) '* Those two mayne iettes Selfe-suf&- 

ncy and Perpetuitie." (p. 121.) 

^4) Seioyn'd one from another." (p. 122.) 
(5) *' Apting the bodies of men " (p. 269.) 
^6) ** Our nakednesse was then our glory, it is 
w our shame : it was a curse to till the earth 



54 MEMOEIAL INTEODUCTIOl^r. 

then, it is now a blessing to liaue earth to till: sa 
that wee haue learnt to turne by the corrnption 
of our nature, our appareU that should couer our 
shame, to proclaime our pride : and our Lands that 
should feede vs by our labour, to the food of our 
luxurie'' (pp. 277, 278) 

(7) ** They had need to be embalm'd as well 
before, as after their deaths." (p. 298) 

(8) *' Lessoned our reason by sence" (p. 304) 

(9) '^Thenoon-Sunne/' (p. 307.) 

(10) ** The Christian impaths himselfe." (p, 
321.) 

(11) **Defalke as much from Gods word.'' 
(p. 323.) 

(12) " Some of these again spanging out of 
the CaQon of the New Testament, all the Eeuela- 
tion of S John. (p. 325.) 

(13) ^^ Others farsing into the Canonicall writ- 
ings, Apocriphall and vnknowne Authors, (p, 
325.) 

(14) ' * The strict keeping of decorum, in figuring 
them [the four Evangelists] like beasts [Hhe four 
"Beasts') such as the Lamb himselfe is. (p. 331.) 

(15) ^^The bulletting of a whole common- 
wealth.'' ( p. 394.) 

(16) '' An irrepugnable truth." (p. 30.) 



MEMORTAL-II^TEODTJCTTO^J-. 5«^ 

(17) ^* Were they not eftsoons reymbark't and 
«tock't againe into the Tree of Life." (p. 43.) 

(18) ''The first fiihiesse or saturity." (p. 50.) 

(19) ' ' Indeflowrishing and vnattainted health. ' ' 

(p. 51) 

(20) Measured them out by God, to vessel it 
up in.'' (p. 53 and again p. 91.) 

(21) •' This is a retruse, and hidden, but in 
truth a very diuine motion" (p. 69.) 

(22) '' The similitude it hath with it, in the act 
of intellection." (p, 70.) 

(23) ''Inspired, and I may so speake. Spirited 
with the Holy Ghost." (p. 76.) 

(24) " Euigilant soules." (p. 85.) 

(25) " Imbondaged." (p, 107.) 

I know not that I leave anything worth-while 
in this Yoltjme: but surely you have in these 
words from it, ' Apples of Gold' in a ' Ease:et 
of SiLVEE.' Eiographically, our longer extracts 
numbered 15. and 17. are most interesting: and 
there are other personal touches that make the 
recovery of the ' Eeward of the Faithfull ' no 
common treasure-trove toward our all too scant 
knowledge of our Worthy. 

That he was human is clear enough : infirm of 
temper and perchance over-vehement and over- 



66 MEMOEIAL-Il^TEODTTCTTOlS'. 

Churclily, and in relation to tlie lowly men who^ 
outside of the Chnrcli of England sought to? 
* speak ' for the One Saviour and of the One 
^ Salvation ' monrnfuUy without the large charity 
• of the illustrious Jeeemy Tatloe in his * Liherty 
of Prophesying ' — which may he called the * Magna 
Charta' of 'Ecclesiastical History,' so potent is it 
etiU. 

Etjllee leaves the death-date of our Poet 
imperfect thus 1 62 . . hut Akthont a-Wood 
supplies it, viz., 1623.-^' ^'I heheld," says the 
former, "the life of this learned poet, like those 
half- verses in Yirgil's ^neid, hroken off in tha 
middle, seeing he might have douhled his days 
according to the ordinary course of nature.'' J 
That 1623 was our "Worthy's death-year is con- 
firmed inferentially hy Phikeas's over-looked 
verses headed " Upon my brother's book called, 
The grounds, labour and reward of faith," than 
which nothing can more meetly close our Intro- 
duction : 

" This lamp filled up, and fir'd by that blest Spirit 
Spent his last oyl ia this pure, heav'nly flame ; 
Laying the grounds, walls, roof of faith : this frame 
With life he ends ; and now doth there inherit 

* As before, s. n. f As before : * Worthies ' s, n. 



MEMOEIAX-IN^TEODtJCTION. 57 

IVhat here he built, crown' d with his laurel merit : 
Whose palms and triumphs once he loudly rang, 
There now enjoy es what here he sweetly sang. 

This is his monument, on which he drew 

His spirit's image, that can never die ; 

But breathes in these live words, and speaks to th' eye : 

In these his winding-sheets he dead doth shew 

To buried souls the way to live anew, 
And in his grave more powerfully now preacheth : 
Who will not learn, when that a dead man teacheth ?"* 

'No stone, — and so no * golden lie ' of epitaph — or 
any other outward memorial whatever, marks Gtiles 
Pletcheh's last resting-place. He left a Widow — 
as we have already seen — who transferred herself 
to another and neighbouring Eectory. Who she 
was, and whether she bore a family to her first 
husband, has not been ^ written.' 

In our edition of the complete 'Poems' of 
Phineas Pletchee, I hope to furnish an Essay on 
the Poetry of the two Brothers, and therein to 
bring out their characteristics, and their influence, 
on MiLTOi^ and others; and also to present critical 
judgments on both, from various sources — satisfied 
that Giles and Phesteas Pletchee need only to be 
known to secure a very much more adequate 



* Poeticall Miscellanies, pp. 101, 102 (1663). 



58 MEMOEIAL-INTEODIJCTION. 

recognition than has yet been accorded; and 
equally so, that otherwise well-read and cnltnred 
men are deplorably ignorant of these and other 
of our ancient ^ Makkars.' 

And so the little life-story is told of one, con- 
cerning whom loyeable old Liyesey's eulogium of 
Chetham, holds, '^ They who excell[ed] him in 
grace, came short of him in learning : and they 
who excell'd him in learning came short of him 
in grace. ''^' Turning then to his noble Poem 

" Now Ms faith, his works, his ways, 
Nights of watching, toilsome days, 
Borne for Christ, 'tis meet we praise." 

ALEXANDEE B. GEOSAET, 

15 St, Alban's Place, 

Blackbuen, Lancashike. 



P.S. "With reference to our Poet's presentation 
to Aldeeton- (see page 25 ante), Mr. Wright of 
Cambridge (as before) has kindly sent me the 
following note: ^^In Bacon's Ziher Regis edn. 
1786, p. 782, under the head of Alderton I find 
^ Sir James Eacon pro duabus vicibus, olim Patr.' 

* ' Greatest Loss,' page 9. 



MEMOEIAL-ES'TEODirCTIOI?'. 



59 



Is it not probable that the living was in the gift of 
tbe Bacon Family in Pletcher's time, and that 
even Sir Francis Eacon may have presented him 
to it ?" This confirms my question in loco : and it 
is very disappointing that the Alderton ' Eegisters' 
and other Manuscripts have been allowed to waste 
and perish. G. 




EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 




|0 the Eight Worship vll [sic], and Eev- 
erend Mr. Doctour JS'eyile, Deane of 
Canterbvrie, and the Master of Trinitie- 
CoUedge in Cambridge.^ 
Eight worthie, and reverend Syr r 

As I hane alwaies thought the place wherein 
I line, after heauen, principally tO' bee desired, 
both because I most want and it most abounds 
with wisdome, which is fled by some with as^ 
much delight, as it is obtained by others, and ought 
t@ be followed by all : so I cannot but next unto 
God, for euer acknowledge myself e most bound 
vnto the hand of God, (I meane yourselfe) that 
reacht dowiie, as it were out of heauen, ynto me, 
a benefit of that nature and price, then which, I 
could wish none, (onely heauen itself e excepted) 
her more fruitfull, and contenting for the time it 



* For notice of Dean Neville see Todd's ^Account of 
the Deans of Canterbury.' He died May 2, 1616. G. 



EPISTLE-DEDICATOEY. 61 

that is now present, or more comfortable, and en- 
couraging for the time that is alreadie past, or 
more hop ef nil, and promising for the the time that 
is yet to come. 

For as in all mens iudgements (that haue any 
iudgement) Europe is worthily deemM the Queene 
of the world, that Garland both of Learning, and 
pure Eeligion beeing now become her crowne, and 
blossoming ypon her head, that hath long since 
laine withered in Greece and Palestine ; so my 
opinion of this Island hath alwaies beene, that it 
is the very face, and beautie of all Europe, in 
which both true Eeligion is faithfully pro- 
fessed without superstition, and (if on earth) true 
Learning sweetly flourishes without ostentation: 
and what are the twoo eyes of this Land, but the 
two Yniversities ; which cannot but prosper in the 
time of such a Prince, that is a Prince of Learning 
as well as of People :'^' and truly I should forget 
myselfe, if I should not call Cambrigge the 
right eye: and I thinke ("King Henrie the 8. 
beeing the vniter, Edward the 3. the Pounder, and 
your selfe the Eepairer of this Colledge, wherein I 
Hue) none will blame me, if lesteemethe same, since 



I. G. 



62 EPISTLE-DEDICATOEY. 

your polishing of it, tlie fairest sight in Camhridge : 
in which beeing placed by your onely fauour, most 
freely, without either any meanes from other, or 
any desert in my selfe, beeing not able to doe more, 
I could doe no lesse, then acknowledge that debt, 
which I shall neuer be able to pay, and with 
old Silenus, in the Poet (vpon whome the boyes — 
injiciunt ipsis ex vineula sertis''^ making his garland, 
his fetters) finding my selfe bound vnto you by so 
many benefits, that were giuen by your selfe for 
ornaments, but are to me as so many golden 
cheines, to hold me fast in a kind of desired bondage, 
seeke (as he doth) my freedome with a song, the 
matter whereof is as worthie the sweetest 
Singer, as my selfe, the miserable Singer, ynworthie 
so diuine a subiect : but the same fauour, that 
before rewarded no desert, knowes now as well 
how to pardon all faults, then which indulgence, 
when I regard my selfe, I can wish no more ; 
when I remember you, I can hope no lesse. 

So commending these few broken lines vnto 
yours, and your selfe into the hands of the best 
physitian, Iesys Cheist, with whome, the most 
ill affected man in the midst of his sicknes, is in 



* Virgil Eel. vi. 19. G. 



EPISTLE-DEDICATOEY. 63 

good health, and without whome, the most lustie 
bodie, in his greatest ioUitie, is but a languishing 
karcase, I humbly take my leaue, ending with the 
same wish, that your denoted Observer, and my 
approoued Friend doth, in his verses presently 
sequent, that your passage to heauen may be 
slow to vs, that shall want you here, but to your 
selfe, that cannot want vs there, most secure and 
certeyne. 

Your Vorships, in all dutie, and seruice 

G. FLETCHER. 




64 PEELIMINABY VEESES. 



THOMAS J^TEVYLE. 
MOST HEAVENLY. 



As when the Captaine of the heauenly host, 
Or else that glorious armie doth appeare 
In waters drown' d, with surging billowes tost, 
We know they are not, where we see they are ; 

We see them in the deepe, we see them mooue, 
We know they fixed are in heauen aboue : 

So did the Sunne of righteousnesse come downe 
Clowded in flesh, and seem'd he in the deepe : 
So doe the many waters seeme to drowne 
The starres his Saints, and they on earth to keepe, 
And yet this Sunne from heauen neuer fell. 
And yet these earthly starres in heauen dwell. 

What if their soules he into prison cast 

In earthly bodies ? yet they long for heauen ; 

What if this worldly Sea they haue not past ? 

Yet faine they would be brought into their hauen. 
They are not here, and yet we here them see, 
For euery man is there, where he would be. 

Long may you wish , and yet long wish in Yaine, 
Hence to depart, and yet that wish obtaine. 
Long may you here in heauen on earth remaine, 
And yet a heauen in heauen hereafter gaine. 

Go you to heauen, but yet make no hast, 
Go slowly slowly, but yet go at last. 

But when the Nightingale so neere doth sit, 
Slence the Titmouse better may befit. 

F. Nbthebsolb. 



TO THE EEADER. 




|HEAE are but fewe of many tliat can 
rightly indge of Poetry ; and yet thear 
ar many of those few, that carry so 
left-handed an opinion of it, as some of them 
thinke it halfe sacrilege for prophane Poetrie to 
deale with divine and heanenly matters, as though 
David wear to be sentenced by them, for yttering 
his graue matter vpon the harpe : others some- 
thing more violent in their censure, but sure lesse 
reasonable (as though Poetrie corrupted all good 
witts, when, indeed, bad witts corrupt Poetrie) 
banish it with Plato out of all well-ordered Com- 
monwealths. Poth theas I will strive rather to 
satisfie, then refute. 

And of the first I would gladlie knowe, whither 
they suppose it fitter, that the sacred songs in the 
Scripture of those heroicall Saincts, Moses, 
Deborah, leremie, Mary, Simeon, Dauid, Salomon 
(the wisest Scholeman, and wittiest PoetJ should 
bee eiected from the canon, for wante of grauitie, or 



66 TO THE EEADEE. 

rather tMs erroure eraced out of their mindes, for 
wante of truth. Eut, it maye bee, they mil giue 
the Spirit of God leaue to breath through what 
pipe it please, & will confesse, because they 
must needs, that all the songs dittied by him, 
must needs bee, as their Eountaine is, most holy : 
but their common clamour is, who may compare 
with God ? true ; & yet as none may compare 
without presumption, so all may imitat, and not 
without commendation : which made JN'azianzen, 
on[e] of the Starrs of the Greeke Church, that 
nowe shines as bright in heauen, as he did then 
on earth, write so manie diuine Poems of the 
Genealogie, Miracles, Parables, Passion of Christ, 
called by him his xp^'^^^^ Traax^^v ^' : which when 
Easil, the Prince of the Fathers, and his Chamber 
fellowe, had scene, his opinion of them was, that 
he could haue deuised nothing either more fruitfuU 
to others — ^because it kindly wood them to 
Beligion, or more honourable to himself e ovh^v r^ap 

liaKapLUOTepov Igti tov ttjp ar^^eXuov x^p^i^av eV r^rj jlli- 
jjuelaOaLj because by imitating the singing Angels in 
heaun, himselfe became, though before his time, an 



* The Cento called Christus Fattens is printed in his 
Works, Vol. II., 253 (Paris 1636). G. 



TO THE EEADEE. 67 

eartUy AngeL^' "What should I speake of luven- 
cus, Prosper, and wise Prudentius? the last of 
wMcli, lining in Hieroms time, twelne linndred 
yeares agoe, bronght foorth. in his declining age, 
so many, & so religious poems, straitly charging 
his soule, not to let passe so much as one either 
night or daye without some diuine song, Symnis 
continuet dies, Nee nox ulla vacet, quin Dominum 
canat.] And as sedulous Prudentius, so prudent 
Sedulius was famous in this poeticall diuinity, 
the coetanj of Bernard, who sung the historie of 
Christ with as much deuotion in himself, as 
admiration to others ; all which wear followed by 
the choicest witts of Christendome ; IS'onnius 
translating all Sainct lohns Ghostpel into Greek 
verse, Sanazar, the late-liuing Image, and happy 
imitator of Yirgil, bestowing ten yeares vpon a 
song, onely to celebrat that one day when Christ 
was borne vnto vs on earth, & we (a happie 
change) vnto God in heau'n : thiice-honour d 
Bartas, & our (I know no other name more 
glorious then his own) Mr. Edmund Spencer (two 
blessed Soules) not thinking ten years inough, 

* Epist. ad Gregorimn Theolog. 1. G. 

t Prudentius, Cathemeriaon Hber, prsef. 37, 38. G. 

:j: Contemporary. G. 



68 TO THE RE.iDER. 

layeing out their whole lines ypon this one studie : 
'Nbj I may iustly say, that the Princely Father of 
our Countrey (though in my conscience, God hath 
made him of all the learned Princes that euer 
wear the most religious, and of all the religious 
Princes, the most learned, that so, by the one, hee 
might oppose him against the Pope, the peste of 
of all Eeligion and by the other, against Bellar- 
mine the abuser of all good Learning) is yet so far 
enamour' d with this celestiall Muse, that it shall 
neuer repent mee — calamo triuisse labellum^ when- 
soeuer I shall remember S^mc eadem ut sciret quid 
non faciehat Amyntas f ^' To name no more in such 
plenty, whear I may finde how to beginne, 
sooner then to end, Saincte Paule, by the 
Example of Christ, that wente singing to mounte 
Oliuet, with his Disciples, after his last supper, 
exciteth the Christians to solace themselues with 
hymnes, and Psalmes, and spirituall songs ; and 
thearefore by their leay's, be it an error for Poet 
to be Divines, I had rather err with the Scriptur 
then be rectified by them : I had rather adore tl 
stepps of JSTazianzen, Prudentius, Sedulius, the 
followe their steps, to bee misguided : I had rath 



* VirgH, Eel. II., 34, 35. G. 



TO THE KEADEE. 69 

be the deuoute Admirer of Noimius, Bartas, my 
sacred Soueraign, and others, the miracles of our 
latter age, then the false sectarie of these, that 
haue nothing at all to follow, but their own naked 
opinions : To conclude, I had rather with my 
Lord, and his most divine Apostle sing (though I 
sing sorilie) the loue of heauen and earthe, then 
praise God (as they doe) with the woorthie guift 
of silence, and sitting still, or think I dispraisd 
him with this poetical discourse. It seems they 
haue either not read, or clean forgot, that it is the 
dutie of the Muses (if wee may beeleeue Pindare, 
and Hesiod) to sit allwaies vnder the throne of 
lupiter, eius et laudes et heneficia 'v/j.v€iov(Ta<$ which 
made a very worthy German writer conclude 
it Certd statuimus, proprmm atque: pecuUare 
poetarium munus esse^ Christi gloriam illustrare 
beeing good reason that the heauenly infusion of 
such Poetry, shouldende in his glorie, that had 
beginning from his goodnes, fit oratory nascitur 
Poeta. 

For the secound sorte thearfore, that eliminat 
Poets out of their citie gates ; as though they 
wear nowe grown so bad, as they could neither 
growe woorse, nor better though it be somewhat 
hard for those to bee the onely men should want 
cities, that wear the onely causers of the building 



70 TO THE EEADEE. 

of them and somewhat inhumane to thrnst them 
into the woods, to line among the beasts, who 
wear the first that call'd men out of the woods, 
from their beastly, and wilde life, yet since they will 
needes shoulder them out for the onely firebrands 
to inflame lust (the fault of earthly men, not 
heauenly Poetiie) I would gladly learne, what 
kind of professions theas men would bee intreated 
to entertaine, that so deride and disaffect Poesie : 
would they admit of Philosophers, that after they 
haue burnt out the whole candle of their life in 
the circular studie of Sciences, crie out at length, 
Se nihil pr or sm scire? or should Musitians be wel- 
come to them, that Dant sine mente sonum — bring 
delight with them indeede, could they aswell 
expresse with their instruments a voice, as they 
can a sound? or would they most approve of 
Soldiers that defend the life of their countrymen 
either by the death of themselues, or their enemies ? 
If Philosophers please them, who is it, that knowes 
not, that all the lights of Example, to cleare their 
precepts, are borrowed by Philosophers from Poets ; 
that without Homers examples, Aristotle would 
be as blind as Homer : If they retaine Musitians, 
who euer doubted, but that Poets infused the verie 
soule into the inarticulate sounds of musique ; that 
without Pindar & Horace the Lyriques had beene 



TO THE EEADEE. 71 

silenced for euer : If they must needes entertaine 
Soldiers, wlio can but confosse, that Poets restore 
againe that life to soldiers, which they before lost 
for the safetie of their country; that without 
Virgil, -^neas had neuer beene so much as heard 
of. How then can they for shame deny common- 
wealths to them, who wear the first Authors of 
them ; how can they denie the blinde Philosopher, 
that teaches them, his light ; the emptie Musitian 
that delights them, his soule ; the dying Soldier, 
that defends their life, immortalitie, after his owne 
death ; let Philosophic, let Ethiques, let all the 
Arts bestowe vpon vs this guift, that we be not 
thought dead men, whilest we remaine among the 
lining : it is onely Poetrie that can make vs be 
thought lining men, when we lie among the dead, 
and therefore I thinke it une quail to thrust them 
out of our cities, that call ys out of our graues, 
to thinke so hardly of them, that make vs to be 
so well thought of to deny them to line a while 
among vs, that make vs Hue for euer among our 
Posteritie. 

So beeing no we weary in pers wading those that 
hate, I commend my selfe to those that love such 
Poets, as Plato speakes of, that sing divine and 
heroical matters, ov r/dp ohjoi elalv^ 6c rav-a 



12 



TO THE EEADER. 



\670i/T69, aW 6 Qeo9y avTo's itrrip 6 Xe'fywi/,* recom- 

mending theas my idle howers, not idly spent, to 
good echollers, and good Christians, that haue 
ouercome their ignorance with reason, and their 
reason, with religion. 



* Plato Ion, p. 181. D : G. 




PRELIMINARY VERSES. 



Fond ladds that spend so fast your poasting time, 
^Too poasting time, that spends your time as fast) 
To chaunt light toyes, or frame some wanton rime, 
"Where idle boyes may glut their lustful tast ; 
Or else with praise to cloath some fleshly slime 
With virgins roses and faire lillies chast ; 

While itching bloods and youthfull eares adore it * 
But wiser men, and once yourselues, will most 
abhorre it. 

But thou (most neere, most deare) in this of thine 
Hast proov'd the Muses not to Venus bound ; 
Such as thy matter, such thy Muse, divine ; 
Or thou such grace with Merci's self tast found, 
That she herself deign' s in thy leaues to shine ; 
Or stol'n from heav'n, thou brought' st this verse to 
ground. 
Which frights the nummed soule with fearfull thunder, 
And Boone with honied dewes melts it 'twixt ioy and 
wonder. 



74 PEELIMIKAEY YEESES. 

Then doe not thou malitions tongnes esteeme ; 
The glasse, through which an envious eye doth gaze, 
Can easily make a mole-hill mountaines seeme 
His praise dispraises, his dispraises praise ; 
Enough, if best men best thy labours deem, 
And to the highest pitch thy merit raise ; 
While all the Muses to thy song 'decree 
Victorious Triumph, triumphant Victoria. 

Phin. Fletcher, Eegal. 

Quid 6, quid Veneres, Cupidinesq, 
Turturesq., iocosq., passeresq 
Lascivi canitis greges, poetse ? 
Et iam languidulos amantum ocellos, 
Et mox turguidulas sinu papillas, 
lam risus * teneros, lachrymulasq., f 
Mox suspiria, morsiunculasq., 
Mille basia ; mille, mille nugas ? 
Et vultus pueri, puellululseve 
(Heu fusci pueri, puellulseq.) 
Pingitis nivibus, rosunculisq., 
(Mentitis nivibus, rosunculisq.) 
Quae vel primo hyemis rigore torpent, 
Vel Phoebi intuitu statim relanguent ? 
Heu stulti nimium greges poetse ! 
Vt, quas sic nimis, ah nimis stupetis, 
(Nives candidulse & rosse pudentes) 
Sic vobis pereunt statim labores : 



*<Fletus' 1632 edn. G. 
t * Cachimiulosque ' ih, G. 



PEELIMINAEY VEESES. 75 

Et solem fugiunt severiorem, 

Vel saltern gelida rigent senecta : 
At tu qui clypeo, hand inane nomen 

(Minerv93 clypeo lovisq.) snmens 
Victrices resonas Dei Triumphos, 
Triumphos lachvyniTS, metnq. plenos, 

Plenos l^titise, & spei triumphos, 
Dum rem carmine, Pieroq. dignam 
Aggrederis, tibi res decora rebus 
Prsebet carmina, Pieroq. digna. 
Quin ille ipse tuos legens tiiumphos, 
Plenos militia, labore plenos ; 
Tuo propitius parat labori 
Plenos laetitise & sp ei triumphos. 

Psm. Fletcher, Regal. 

'H Map la JUL 
M^ fiiapa, 

Beatissima virginum Maria, 

Sed materq. simul beata, per quam 

Qui semper fuit ille coepit esse : 

Quae Vitse dederisq. inire vitam : 

Et Luci dederis videre lucem : 

Quae fastidia, morsiunculasq. 

Passa es quas grauidse solent, nee unquam 

Audebas propior viro venire, 

Dum clusus * penetralibus latebat 



*'Qlmm^Uh, a 



76 PRELIMINAEY VEKSES. 

Matricis tunic^ undiq. involutus, 

Quern se posse negant tenere coeli. 

Quas non virgineas premi papillae 

Passa, virgineas tamen dedisti 

Lactandas puero tuo papillas. 

Eia, die age, die beata virgo, 

Cur piam abstineas manum timesq. 

Sancta tangere, Sanctuariumq : 

Insolens fugias ? an inquinari 

Contactu metuis tuo sacrata ? 

Contactu metuit suo sacrata 

PoUui pia, cemis en ferentem, 

Lenimenta Dei furentis, ilia 

Fsedatas sibi ferre quae iubebat. 

Sis felix noua virgo-mater opto, 

Quae mollire Deum paras amicum. 

Quin hie dona licet licet relinquas, 

Agnellumq. repone, turturemq.. 

Audax ingrediare inanis sedes 

Dei, tange Deo sacrata,ftange. 

Quae non concubitu coinquinata, 

Agnellum peperitq, Turturemq, « 

Exclusit, facili Deo litabit 

Agno cum Deus insit, & columbas. 

Nor can I so much say as much I ought, 
Nor yet so little can I say as nought, 
In praise of this thy worke, so heauenly pend. 
That sure the sacred Dove a quill did lend 
From her high-soaring wing : certes I know 
No other plumes, that makes man seeme so low 



PBELIMINAEY VEESES. 77 

In his owne eyes, who to all others sight 
Is mounted to the highest pitch of height : 
Where if thou seeme to any of small price, 
The fault is not in thee, but in his eyes : 
But what doe I thy flood of witrestreine 
Within the narrow bankes of my poore veyne ? 
More I could say, and would, but that to praise 
Thy verses, is to keepe them from their praise. 
For them who reades, and doth them not aduance, 
Of envie doth it, or of ignorance. 

F. Nethersole.* 

In 1632 edition there is added here a couplet: 

Defuncto fratri, 
Think (if thou cans' t) how mounted onhis spheare 
In heaven now he siQgs : thus sung he here. 

Phin. Fletcher. Regal. G-. 



* Nethersole was ' Public Orator * of the University 
(of Cambridge), in which office he was succeeded by 
George Herbert, who, Hke Giles Fletcher, was a 
protege of Dean Nevile. Lowndes ,'calls him Sir 
Francis as author of a forgotten Latin tractate (See 
s. n.) Nethersole fell under the scorpion lash of 
John Goodwin, who had been assailed by him very 
grossly and unrighteously. G. 



CHEIST'S 
YICTOEIE AND TEITJMPE 



NOTE. 



The original title-page, as well as those of 
the second and third editions, wiU be found 
annexed: also collation of each edition. The 
changes from the first (1610) are wholly modern- 
isation of the spelling. Our text is that of 1610; 
to the orthography of which, throughout, we 
adhere strictly — save that the usual mark of 
apostrophe of the possessive case is inserted e. g. 
Eome's not Eomes, and that the capitals and 
italics are occasionally diminished and occasionally 
encreased — the latter in the Divine names — 
nouns and pronouns — and in Impersonations. 
The punctuation is also accommodated to modem 
usage : the original consists mainly of a profusion 
of commas. As the Poet was dead before the 
second edition appeared, the text of 1610 is the 
only one that bears his authority. Exemplifica- 
tions of the faulty character of re-prints hitherto, 
will be found in the foot-notes, where the most 
flagrant mis-prints, etc., etc., of three of the best 



82 NOTE. 

are given viz. (1) Eichaedsois-'s : ^^Clirist's Victory 
and Triumph in Heaven and Earth, over and after 
Death, in Pour Parts. Ey Giles Fletcher. With 
an Original Biographical Sketch of the Author, 
&c. Also some Choice Pieces from the Poetieal 
"Writings of the Eev. George Herhert, Late Orator 
of the University of Cambridge. London : 
Published by T. Eichardson, 98, High Holborn, 
and E. Clark. 1824. cr. 8vo. pp. xiv. and pp. 
130." This is a somewhat ambitions but a very 
poor edition. There is nothing ' original ' in the 
' Eiographical Sketch ' except that while adding 
nothing to former scanty materials it contrives to 
multiply ^ blunders ' The orthography is mod- 
ernized throughout and the sense repeatedly mis- 
taken. Probably the Publisher — who was also 
the Printer — was his own Editor. I designate 
it by Eichardson : but he is not to be confounded 
with De. Etchaedsoi^, to whom we have fre- 
quent occasion to refer in our notes. (2) Sotj- 
thet's: in his 'British Poets: Chaucer to Jonson.' 
(1831, 8vo.) He disclaims responsibility for the 
proof-sheets: but he must be held responsible 
for the selection of his texts. (3) Cattsemole's : 
in his '^ Sacred Poetry of the 17th Century.'' 
(1836, 2 vols. 12mo.) both modernized and 
carelessly read. I have not deemed it worth- 



:n^oti:. 83 

wMle to add the like mis-prints and corruptions 
of the general collations of what are called ^ The 
Poets ' by Dr. Anderson and by Chalmers. That 
of 1783 (8yo) along with ^The Purple Island' is 
beneath criticism. Throughout I have added 
foot-notes as required — passing over trite classical 
allusions and names. I have very heartily to 
acknowledge the scholarly aid of my friend "W. 
Alms "Weight, Esq., M.A., of Trinity College, 
Cambridge, in verifying and correcting such 
allusions and quotations as I found any difficulty 
with. He has rendered me careful and un- 
grudging help in all my labours on these 
Poets. G. 



S4 NOTE. 

(a) 1st edition: 

CHRISTS 

VICTORIE, AND TBI- 



in Seauen, and Ea/rth^ 
over, and after death. 



A te principiTiin, tibi desinet, accipe iussis 

Carmina csepta tuis, atqne hanc sine tempora circum 

Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros. 



Cambridge 
Printed by C. Legge. 1610. [small 4to.] 



Collation : Title-page — ^Epistle Dedicatory pp. 3 — 
Nethersole's * Verses * 1 page — to the Reader pp. 5 — 
Phin. Fletcher's and Kethersole's * Verses ' pp. 4 — [un- 
[unpaged] — Poem pp. 83 and Latin * Lines' 1 page. 
Opposite blank reverse of page 45 is a separate title-page 
* Christ's Trivmph oner and after Death. Vincenti 
dabitur. Printed by C. Legge, 1610. After page 79 by 
anroversight mispages 81 and so runs — 



IfOTE. 85 

{h) 2nd edition : 

CHEISTS 

VICTORIE AND 

TRIUMPH IN HEAVEN 

AND EARTH, OVER 
AND AFTER DEATH. 



A te principiuin, tibi desinet : accepe jussis 
Carmina coepta tuis, atq hanc sine tempora circiim 
Inter victrices hederamtibi serpere lauros. 



The second Edition. 



Cambridge : 
Printed for Francis Green. 1632. [Small 4to] 

Collation : Title-page — Epistle Dedicatory ' pp. 3 — 
Nethersole's * Verses' 1 page — ^to the Reader pp. 4 — 
Plun. Fletcher's and Netersole's ^Verses' pp. 4 — 
[unpaged] — Poem pp. 83 and Latin * Lines ' on page 84. 
Opposite page *42 is the separate title as stipra ' Christ's 
Triumph ouer and after Death. Vincenti dabitur. Printed 
by the Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge. Ann, 
Dom, 1632.' 



86 :note. 

{e) 3rd edition. 

CHRISTS 

VICTORY 

AND 

TRIVMPH. 

In Heaven and Earthy over and after 
Death, 



'Birth. 
Circumcision. 
Wlierein is ) Baptism. 

lively figured J ^s < J^^i^^^^^'^- 



I Resurrection. 
[^Ascention. 



In foure divine Poems. 



Cambridge : 

Printed by J^oger Daniel, for Michard Royston, 1640. 

[Small 4to.[ 

Collation : same as 2nd edition : and seven engravings 
as described in our Appendix to the Poem. The above 
separate title not in 3rd edition. G. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Dedication .. ,. •• .• .. 3 

II. Memorial-Introduction . . . , 6 

III. Epistle Dedicatory of ^ Christ's Victorie ' • . w j 
rV. Nethersole to Dr. Kevyle , . , , , , . • 64 

V. To the Eeader 65 

VI. Prefatory Poems by Phineas Fletcher and 

Nethersole , , 73 

VII. Christ's Victorie in Heaven 89 

Vm. Christ's Victorie on Earth 1 

IX. Christ's Trivmph over Death 163 

X. Christ's Trivmph after Death 197 

XI. Latin Verses by the Author at end . . . . , , 224 

XII. Appendix, containing 'Lines' from the Engrav- 

ings of the edition of 1640 225 

XIII. Canto on the Death of Queen Elizabeth 

from ' Sorrowe's Joy ' 231 

XIV. Translation-Verses from 'Eeward of the 

FaithfuU:'— 

(1) The Heavenly Country 237 

(2) The Rose, and * Black but Comely,' , . 238 

(3) The Rich Poor Man . . 240 

(4) The Ungodly Rich 240 

(5) The G-ods accused , . . . 241 

(6) Husbandry 242 

(7) Others .. 243 



CHEIST'S 
YICTOEIE AND TEIUMPH. 



THE ARGUMENT.* 

The Argument propounded in generall : Our redemption by Christ : 
St. 1, 2. — The Author's inuocation for the better handling of it : 
St. 3, 4. — The Argument [in its details G-.] : Man's redemption 
expounded from the cause — Mercie dwelling in heauen, and plead- 
ing for man now guiltie, with Justice described by her qualities; 
Bt. 5 — 11. Her retinue : st. 12 — 14, — Her subiects : st. 15, 16,— Her 
accusation of man's sinne : st. 17. And (I.) of Adam's first sinne: 
St. 18, 19. — Then of his posteritie's, in all kinde of idolatrie : st. 20 
— 24, How hopelesse auy patronage of it : st. 25—27. — All the 
creatures hauing disleagued themselues with him for his extreame 
ungratefulnes . st. 28 — 34, — So that beeng destitute of all hope or 
auy remedie, he can look for nothiug but a fearful sentence : st. 35 
— 39. — The effect of Justice, her speech : the inflammation of the 
heauenly powers appeased by Mercie, who is described by her 
cherfulnes to defend man : st. 40 — 42. — Our inabilitie to describe 
her : st. 43, 44. — Her beautie resembled by the creatures, which are 
all fraile shadows of her essentiall perfection : st. 45, 46. — Her 
attendants : st. 46, 47.— Her persuasiue power : st. 48 — 50.— Her 
kind offices to man : st. 51, 52.— Her garments, wrought by her 
owne hands, wherewith shee cloaths herself e, composd of all the 
creatures : st. 53. — The Earth : st. 54. — Sea ; st. 55, 56. — Ayre : st. 67, 
58.— The celestiall bodies : st. 59, 60.— The third heauen : st. 61, 62. 
—Her obiects : st. 63.— Eepentance : st. 64— 66.— Faith : st. 67—69. 
— Her deprecative spech for man ; in which she translates the 
principal fault vnto the deuill ; and, repeating Justice her aggra- 
vation of man's sinne, mitigates it. (1) By a contrarie inference : 
(2) By interessingl her selfe in the cause, andi Christ : st. 70 — 75. — 
that is as sufficient to satisfie, as man was impotent : st. 76, 77. — 
Whom shee celebrates from the time of his natiuitie : st. 78. From 
the effects of it in himselfe : st. 79, 80.— Egypt : st. 81.-1110 angels 
[and] men : st. 82, 83. — The effect of Mercie's speech : st. 84. — A 
transition to Christ's second victorie.: st. 85. 



* In the author's own edition and in those of 1632 and 
1640, 'The Argument' is dispersed over the margins 
opposite the several stanzas. It has been thought 
better to bring it together at the commencement of 
each Part. G. 

1. Richardson, Southey, and Cattermole, misprint 'inter- 
cessing '=intorceding : Fletcher himself as suj^ra. G. 



CHRIST'S YICTOPJE IN HEAVEN. 



1. 




KE birth of Him that no beginning knewe, 
Yet giues beginning to all that are borne ; 
Ajid how the Infinite farre greater grewe, 
By growing lesse, and how the rising Mome, 
That shot from hean'n, did^ backe to heau'n 
retoume ; 
The obsequies of Him that could not die, 
And death of life, ende of etemitie. 
How worthily He died, that died vnworthily ; — 

2. 

How God and Man did both embrace each other. 
Met in one person, Heau'n and Earth did kiss ; 
And how a virgin did become a mother, 
And bare that Sonne, "vYho the world's father is, 
And maker of His mother ; a id how bliss 
Descended from the bosome ©f the High, 



1. Southey misprints here 'and' for 'did.' G. 



92 CHEISl^' TICTOEIE IN HEAYEN. 

To cloath Himselfe in naked miserie, 
Sayling at length to Heau'n, in Earth, triumph- 
antly — ^ 

3. 

Is the first flame, wherewith my whiter Muse 
Doth bume in heauenly lone, such loue to tell. 
Thou that didst this holy fire infuse, 
And taught'st this brest — but late the graue of hell, 
Wherein a blind and dead heart liu'd — to swell 

With better thoughts, send downe those lights 
that lend 

Knowledge, how to begin, and how to end 
The loue, that neuer was, nor euer can be pend. ^ 

4. 

Ye Sacred Writings, in whose antique leaues 
The memories of Heau'n entreasur'd lie, 
Say, what might be the cause that Mercie heaues 
The dust of sinne aboue th' industrious skie. 



I may be allowed to refer to my " Lord Bacon not the 
Author of 'The Christian Paradoxes,' being a re-print 
of Memorials of Godliness and Christianity, by 
Herbert Palmer, B.D. With Introduction, Memoir 
and Notes." 8vo., 1865. Probably Palmer had the 
^ Paradoxes ' suggested by Fletcher. G. 

• Penned '=written or described : but cf. stanza 17, 
line 7 =coti fined. G 



CHEISTS' YICTOEIE I^ HEAYEX. 93 

And lets it not to dust and ashes flie ? 
Could Justice be of sinne so ouer- wooed. 
Or so great ill be cause of so great good, 

That bloody man to saue, man's Sauiour sbed His 
blood ? 

5. 

Or did tbe lips of Mercie droppe soft speech 
For traytrous man, when at th' Etemall's throne 
Incensed IN'emesis^ did Heau'n beseech 
With thundring voice, that lustice might be showne 
Against the rebells, that from Grod were flowne ? 
say, say how could Mtrcie plead for those 
That, scarcely made, against their Maker rose ? 
"Will any slay his friend that he may spare his 
foes? 

6. 

There is a place beyond that flaming hill, 

From whence the starres their thin apparence shed ; 

A place, beyond all place, where neuer ill, 

l^OT impure thought, was euer harboured, 

Eut sainctly heroes are for euer s'ed^ 



l.=Persoiiificatioii of Conscience. Cf. Hesiod, Theog. 

223. G. 
2. Soiitliey ' su'd :' Cattermole ' said :' Query = saved ? Or. 



94 Christ's tictokie in heaven-. 

To keepe an euerlasting Sabbaoth's rest, 
Still wishing that, of what th' ar still possest, 
Enioying but one ioy, — but one of all ioyes best. 

Here, when the mine of that beauteous frame, 
"Whose golden building shin'd with euerie starre 
Of excellence, deform' d with age became, 
Mercy, remembring peace in midst of warre. 
Lift yp the musique of her voice, to barre 
Eternall Pate, least it should quite erace 
That from the world, which was the first world's 
grace, 
And all againe into their nothing — Chaos — chase. 

8 

For what had all this All which man in one 
Did not vnite ? the earth, aire, water, fire, 
Life, sense, and spirit, nay, the powxeful throne 
Of the diuinest Essence, did retire. 
And His owne image into clay inspire : 

So that this creature well might called be 
Of the great world the small epitomie. 
Of the dead world, the Hue and quicke^ anatomie. 



1. Living, alive, as Shakespere, (Hamlet v. 1.) "'Tis 
for the dead, not for the quick." Cf. Numbers xvi. 

30. a. 



CHRIST^S VICTORIE IN HEAVEIf. 95 

9. 

Eut Justice had no sooner Mercy scene 
Smoothing the wrinkles of her father's browe, 
But vp she starts, and throwes herself betweene : 
As when a vapour, from a moory slough, 
Meeting with fresh Eoiis, ^ that but now 

Open'd the world, which all in darknesse lay, 

Doth heau'ns bright face of his rayes disaray, 

And sads the smiling Orient of the springing day. 

10. 

She was a Yirgin of austere regard ; 

JSTot as the world esteemes her, deafe and blind ; 

But as the eagle, that hath oft compared 

Her eye with Heau'n's, so, and more brightly 
shin'd 

Her lamping sight ; for she the same could winde 
Into the solid heart, and with her eares 
The silence of the thought loude speaking heares. 

And in one hand a paire of euen scoals^ she weares. 

11. 

1^0 riot of affection reuell kept 
Within her brest, but a still apathy 



1 Eos: in Latin, Aurora, the goddess of the Morning who 
brings up the light of Day from the East. Cf. Hesiod. 
Theog. 371 &c. G. 

2 Scales. G. 



96 CHEIST's yiCTOEIE IN HEAYEN. 

Possessed all her sonle, wMcli softly slept 
Securely, without tempest ; no sad one 
Awakes her pittie, but wrong' d pouertie, 

Sending her eyes to heau'n swimming in teares, 
Vith hideous clamours euer struck her eares, 
Whetting the blazing sword, that in her hand she 
beares. 

12. 

The winged Lightning is her Mercury, 
And round about her mightie thunders sound : 
Impatient of himselfe lies pining by 
Pale Sicknes with his kercher'd^ head yp wound, 
And thousand noysome plagues attend her round ; 
Eut if her clowdie browe but once grow foule. 
The flints doe melt, and rocks to water rowle. 
And ayrie mountaines shake, and frighted shadowes 
howle. 

13. 

Pamine, and bloodies Care, and bloodie "Warre, 
Want, and the want of knowledge how to vse 
Abundance, Age, and Eeare, that runnes afarre 
Eefore his fellowe Greefe, that aye pursues 



Ji Milton has * Chercheft ' in II Penseroso 1,25 ' But Cher- 
chef t in a comely Cloud' C 



CHKIST's YICTORIE 1^ HEATEN. 97 

His winged steps ; for who would not refuse 
Greefe's companie, a dull and rawebon'd spright. 
That lankes the cheekes, and pales the freshest 
sight, 

Ynbosoming the cheereful brest of all delight. 

14. 

Eefore this cursed throng, goes Ignorance, 
That needes will leade the way he cannot see : 
And, after all. Death doeth his flag aduance, 
And, in the midst, Strife still would roaguing^ be^ 
Whose ragged flesh and cloaths did well agree : 
And round about amazed Horror flies, 
And ouer all. Shame veiles his guiltie eyes, 
And vndemeath. Hell's hungrie throat still yawning: 
lies. 

15. 

Ypon two stonie tables, spread before her, 
She lean'd her bosome, more then stonie hard ; 
There slept th' ynpartiall ludge, and strict restorei' 
Of wrong or right, with paine or with reward ; 
There hung the skore of all our debts, the card 
Whear good, and bad, and life, and death were 
painted : 



1 Raging. G. 



98 CHKIBT'S VICTORTE IN HEATEN. 

Was neuer heart of mortall so vntainted, 
But wlien that scroule was read, with thousand 
terrors fainted. 

16. 

Witnes the thunder that mount Sinai heard, 
When all the hill with firie clouds did flame, 
And wandring Israel with the sight afeard, 
Blinded with seeing, durst not touch the same. 
But like a wood of shaking leaues became. 
On this dread ^ Justice, she, the Lining Lawe 
Bowing herselfe with a majestique awe, 
All heau'n, to heare her speech, did into silence 
drawe. 

17. 

* Dread Lord of spirits, well Thou did'st deuise 

To fling the world's rude dunghill, and the drosse 

Of the ould Chaos, farthest from the skies. 

And thine Owne seate, that heare ^ the childe of 
losse 

Of all the lower heau'n, the curse and crosse, 
That wretch, beast, caytiue monster — Man, 

might spend, 
(Proude of the mire in which his soule is pend) 

Clodded in lumps of clay, his wearie life to end. 



1 Misprinted by Fletcher himself ' dead.' G. 

2 Hiehardson has ^hear ', Cattermole misprints 'there' G. 



CHEIST^S yiCTOEIE US' H^EAVE^. 99 

18. 

His bodie dust: whear grewe such cause of 

pride ? 
His soule Thy image : what could he enuie ? 
Himselfe most happie : if he so would bide, 
IN'ow grow'n most wretched, who can remedie ? 
He slewe himselfe, himselfe the enemie. 

That his owne soule would her owne murder 

wreake : 
If I were silent, Heau'n and Earth would speake 
And, if all fayl'd, these stones would into clamours 
breake. 

19 

* How many darts made furrowes in his side, 
When she, that out of his owne side was made 
Gaue feathers to their flight^ ? where was the pride 
Of their newe knowledge ? whither did it fade, 
When, running from Thy voice into the shade, 
He fled Thy sight, himselfe of sight bereaued ; 



Cf. -^schyliis, Myrmidones, frag. Bp. Butler in his 
note on this fragt, quotes Waller's sonnet commencing 
^That Eagle's fate, &c. Byron applies it pathetically 
to Kirk "White. See a learned discussion of the whole 
question, by Gataker, Advers. Misc. Posth. cap. xii. Gr. 

.LofC. 



100 cheist's victoeie m heayej^. 

And for his shield a leauie armour weau'd, 
With which, yain man, he thought God's eies to 
haue deceaud^ ? 

20. 

^ And well he might delude those eyes, that see, 
And iudge by colours : for who euer sawe 
A man of leaues, a reasonable tree ? 
But those that from this stocke their life did drawe, 
Soone made their father godly, and by lawe 
Proclaimed trees almightie : gods of wood. 
Of stocks, and stones with crownes of laurell stood 
Templed, and fed by fathers with their childrens' 
blood. 

21. 

^ The sparkling fanes, that burne in beaten gould, 
And, like the starres of heau'n in mid'st of night 
Elacke Egypt, as her mirrhours doth behould, 
Are but the denns whear idoU- snakes delight 
Againe to couer Satan from their sight : 

Yet these are all their gods to whome they vie 
The crocodile, the cock, the rat, the flie : 
Pit gods, indeede, for such men to be serued by. 



1 The close of this stanza has suffered from the Editors. 
South ey misprints (line 6th) ' light ' for ' night,' and 
(line 7th) 'heavy' for 'leauie '=leafy, and Cattermole 
drops (line 8th) ' vain man.' Gr. 



CKRIST's YICTOEIE IK^ HEAVE^^ 101 

22. 

' The fire, the winde, the sea, the smme, and moone? 
The flitting^ aire, and the swift- winged how'rs, 
And all the watchmen, that so nimbly runne, 
And centinel about the walled towers 
Of the world's citie, in their heau'nly bowr's ; 

And, least their pleasant gods should want 
delight, 

I^eptune spues out the lady Aphrodite, 
And but in Heauen proude Juno's peacocks skome 
to lite. 

23. 

' The senselesse Earth, the serpent, dog, and catte. 
And woorse then all these, Man, and woorst of men, 
Ysurping love, and swilling^ Eacchus fat. 
And drunke with the vine's purple blood; and then 
The fiend himselfe they coniure from his denne, 
Because he onely yet remain' d to be 
Woorse then the worst of men : they flie from thee, 
And weare his altar-stones out with their pliant 
knee. 

24. 

^ All that he speakes (and all he speakes are lies) 
Are oracles ; 'tis he (that wounded all) 

1 Fleeting. G. 

2 Eichardson and Cattermolc misread swelling.' G. 



102 Christ's vicioeie in heaven. 

Cures all their wonnds, he (that put out their eyes) 

That giues them light, he (that death first did call 

Into the world) that with his orizalP 

Inspirits Earth : he Heau'ns al-seeing eye, 
He Earth's great prophet, he, whom rest doth 
flie. 

That on salt billowes doth, as pillowes, sleeping lie 

25. 

* But let him in his cabin restles rest. 

The dungeon of darke fiames, and freezing fire, 
Instice in Heau'n against man makes request 
To God, and of his angels doth require 
Sinne's punishment : if what I did desire, 

Or who, or against whome, or why, or whear, 
Of, or before whom ignorant I wear. 
Then should my speech their sands of sins to 
mountaines rear. 

26 

* "Were not the heau'ns pure, in whose courts I 

sue; 
The ludge, to whom I sue, iust to requite him ; 
The cause for sinne, the punishment most due ; 
lustice her selfe the plaintifi'e to enclite him ; 



1 Query ' rising ' as of the sun ? But I have not met with 
the word elsewhere. G. 



cheist's yictoeih m heavex. 103 

The angells holy, before whom I cite him ; 

He against whom, yniiist, impure ; 

Then might he sinnefiill line, and die secure, 
Or triall might escape, or triall might endure. 

27 

' The iudge might partiall be, and ouer-pray'd ; 
The place appeal' d from, in whose courts he sues ; 
The fault excus'd, or punishment delay' d. 
The parties selfe accus'd that did accuse ; 
Angels for pardon might their praiers vse : 

But now no starre can shine, no hope be got. 

Most wretched creature, if he knewe his lot, 
And yet more wretched farre, because he knowes 
it not. 

28 

* What should I tell how barren Earth is growne, 
All for to sterue her children : didst not thou 
Water with heau'nly showers her wombe vnsowne, 
And drop downe cloudes^- of flow'rs ? didst not 

thou bow 
Thine easie eare vnto the plowman's vowe ? 
Long might he looke, and looke, and long in 
vaine 



1 Southoy niisprints ' clods.' G. 



104 CHEIST's VIC'fOKIE IK HEAYEX. 

Might load his haruest in an emptie wayne, 
And beat the woods, to finde the poor okes hnngrie 
graine. 

29. 

' The swelling Sea seethes in his angrie wanes, 
And smites the Earth, that dares the traytors nou- 
rish ; 
Yet oft his thunder ther light corke outbraues, 
Mowing the mountaines, on whose temples flourish 
Whole woods of garlands; and their pride to 
cherish, 
Plowe through the seae's greene fields, and 

nets display 
To catch the flying winds, and steale away, 
Ooozning the greedie Sea, prisning their nimble 
prey. 

30. 

^ How often haue I scene the waning pine, 
Tost on a watrie mountaine, kaockehis head 
At Heau'ns too patient gates, and with salt brine 
Queench the moone's burning homes, and safely 

fled 
Prom Heau'ns reuenge, her passengers all dead 

With stiffe astonishment tumble to Hell ? 

How oft the Sea all Earth would ouerswell, 
Did not thy sandie girdle binde the mightie well ? 



Christ's victoeie ijt heayen. 105 

31. 

* Would not the aire be fill'd with steames^ of 

death, 
To poyson the quicke^ riuers of their blood, 
Did not thy windes, fan with their panting breath, 
The flitting region ? would not the hastie flood 
Emptie it selfe into the Sea's wide wood, 

Did'st not thou leade it wand'ring from his way. 
To giue men drinke, and make his waters strey, 
To fresh the flowrie meadowes, through whose 
fields they play ? 

32. 

* Who makes the sources of the siluer fountaines 
From the flinth's mouth, and rocky yalleis slide, 
Thickning the ayrie bowells of the mountaines ? 
Who hath the wilde heards of the forest tide 

In their cold denns, making them hungrie bide 
Till man to rest be laid ? can beastly he. 
That should haue most sense, onely senseles be. 

And all things else, beside himselfe, so awefuU 



1 Richardsom, Southey, and Cattermole misprint ' streams.' 

G. 

2 * Living,' ' alive,' as before. G-. 



106 cheist's victorie m wejlx-ek. 

33. 

* "Wear he not wilder then the saluage beast, 
Prowder then haughty hills, harder then roeks, 
Colder then foiintaines, from their springs releas*ty 
Lighter then aire, blinder then senseles stocks, 
More changing then the riuers curling locks : 

If reason would not, sense would soone reprooue 
him, 

And vnto shame, if not to sorrow, mooue him, 
To see cold floods, wild beasts, dul stocks, hard 
stones out-loue him. 

34. 

' Ynder the weight of sinne the earth did fall, 
And swallowed Dathan;^ and the raging winde. 
And stormie sea, and gaping whale, did call 
Eor lonas ;^ and the aire did bullets finde, 
And shot from Heau'n a stony showi'e, to grinde 
The flue proud kings, that for their idols fought ; ^ 
The sunne it selfe stood still to fight it out,* 
And fire from heau'n flew downe, when sin to 
heau'n did shout. ^ 



1 Numbers c. xvi. 

2 Jonah i. 1 seqq. ii. 1 — 10, &c. Q-. 

3 Joshua X., 11. G. 

4 Joshua X., 12 seqq. G. 

6 Genesis xviii., 20, and xix., 24. 



CHBIST's YICTOEIE IN" HEAYEir. 107 

35. 

Should any to himselfe for safety file ? 
The way to sane himselfe, if any were. 
"Wear to flie from himselfe : should he relie 
Ypon the promise of his wife ? but there, 
What can he see, but that he most may feare, 

A syren, sweete to death : vpon his friends ? 

Who that he needs, or that he hath not, lends ; 
Or wanting aide himselfe, ayde to another sends ? 

36. 

His strength? but dust: his pleasure? cause of paine : 
His hope ? false courtier : youth or beawtie ? brittle : 
Intreatie ? fond^ : repentance ? late, and vaine : 
lust recompence ? the world wear all too little : 
Thy loue ? he hath no title to a tittle : 

Hell's force ? in yaine her furies Hell shall 
gather : 

His seruants, kinsmen, or his children rather ? 
His child, if good, shall iudge ; if bad, shall curse 
his father. 

37. 

* His life ? that brings him to his end, and leaues 

him: 
His ende ; that leaues him to beginne his woe : 

1 FooHsh, a. 



108 CHEIST^S VICTOEIE Uf HEATEN". 

His goods? wliat good in that, tliat so deceaues Hm? 

His gods of wood ? their feete, alas ! are slowe 

To goe to helpe, that must be help't to goe: 
Honour, great woorth ? ah, little woorth they be 
Vnto their owners : wit ? that makes him see 

He wanted wit, that thought he had it, wanting 
Thee. 

38. 

*The Sea to drinke him quieke?^ that casts hi& 

dead: 
Angells to spare ? they punish : night to hide ? 
The world shall bume in light ; the heau'ns to 

spread 
Their wings to saue him ? heaun it selfe shall slide, 
And rawle away like melting starres, that glide 
Along their oylie threads : his minde pursues 

him: 
His house to shrowde, or hills to fall and bruse 

him? 
As sergeants both attache, and witnesses accuse him, 

39, 

* What need I vrge, what they must needs con- 

fesse. 
Sentence on them, condemn'd by their owne lust? 

1 * Living,' *aHve/ G. 



CHSIST^S YICTOEIE IN HEAYEIf. 109 

I crane no more, and Thou canst gine no lesse, 

Then death to dead men, iustice to vninst ; 

Shame to most shamefull, and most shameles dust : 
But if Thy mercie needs will spare her friends, 
Let Mercie there begin where Iustice endes. 

''Tis cruel Mercie, that the wrong from right 
defends.' 

40. 

She ended, and the heau'nly Hierarchies, 
Burning in zeale, thickly imbranded ^ weare ; 
Like to an armie that allarum cries. 
And euery one shakes his ydraded^ speare, 
And the Almightie's Selfe, as He would teare 
The Earth and her firme basis quite in sunder, 
Plam'd all in iust reuenge and mightie thunder; 
Heau'n stole it selfe from Earth by clouds that 
moisterd^ vnder. 

1 Cattermole explains this as ' mustered in arms ;' "but 

this is a mere adaptation to the context. Eichardson 
in his great Dictionary says 'Perhaps armed with 
brands,' and then quotes from Fletcher, as ahove. 

* Brand, which means a 'torch' is also used for a 

* sword/ because in motion it glitters like a burning 
torch or fire-brand. Skinner. Gr. 

2 Ydreaded i.e. dreaded : Eichardson and Cattermole suh- 

stitute ' terrific' G. 

3 Moistured, refreshed : Southey and Cattermole mispriat 

' moisten' d.' G. 



110 CHEIST's YICTOBIE IJf HEAVEK. 

41. 

As -when the cheerfull sunne, elamping ^ wide, 
Glads all tlie world with his vprising raye, 
And wooes the widow'd Earth afresh to pride, 
And paint[s] ^ her bosome with the flowrie Maye, 
His silent sister steales him qnite away, 

"Wrap't in a sable clowde from mortall eyes ; 

The hastie starres at noone begin to rise, 
And headlong to his early roost the sparrowe flies. 

42. 

Eut soone as he againe dishadowed is, 
Eestoring the blind world in his blemish't sight, 
As though another day wear newely ris, ^ 
The cooz'ned birds busily take their flight. 
And wonder at the shortnesse of the night ; 
So Mercie once againe her selfe displayes, 
Out from her sister's cloud, and open layes 
Those sunshine looke?, whose beames would dim 
a thousand dayes. 

1 Enlightening like a lamp : Cf Spenser, Fairie Queen 

III c 3 s 1 : and first Sonnet. Dr. Eichardson as 
before, quotes above G. 

2 Misprinted ' paint ' : but in 1632 ed. corrected to 'paints' 

as supra G. 

3 Richardson, Southey and Cattermole, , again sadly mar 

this line, by mis-reading from the previous one * world ' 
for ' day ' and ' his ' for ' ris ' G. 



Ill 

43. 

lE'Ow may a worme, that crawles along the dust, 
Clamber the azure mountaines, thrown so high, 
And fetch from thence thy faire Idea iust, 
That in those sunny courts doth hidden lie, 
Cloath'd with such light, as blinds the angels' eye; 
How may weake mortall euer hope to file 
His ynsmooth tongue, and his deprostrate stile ? 
O raise Thou from his corse Thy now entomb 'd 
exile ! 

44. 

One touch would rouze me from my sluggish 

hearse. 
One word would call me to my wished home. 
One looke would polish my afflicted verse. 
One thought would steale my soule from her thicke 

lome, 
And force it wandiing yp to Heau'n to come, 
Thear to importune, and to beg apace 
One happy fauour of Thy sacred grace, 
To see — what though it loose her eyes ? — to see 

Thy face. 

45. 

If any aske why roses please the sight ? 

Because their leaues vpon thy cheekes doe bowre : 

If any aske why lillies are so white ? 



112 CHEIST's YICTOEIE 11^ HEAVEN. 

Because their blossoms in thy hand doe flowre : 
Or why sweet plants so grateful! odours shoure? 
It is because Thy"^ breath so like they be : 
Or why the Orient sunne so bright we see ? 
What reason can we giue, but from Thine eies, 
and Thee? 

46. 

Eos'd all in liuely crimsin ar Thy cheeks, 
"Whear beawties indeflourishing abide, 
And, as to passe his fellowe either seekes, 
Seemes both doe^ blush at one another's pride; 
And on Thine eyelids, waiting Thee beside, 

Ten thousand Graces sit, and when they mooue 
To Earth their amourous belgards*^ from aboue. 
They flie from Heau'n, and on their wings conuey 
Thy loue. 

47. 

All of discoloured plumes their wings ar made, 
And with so wondrous art the quills ar wrought, 
That whensoere they cut the ayrie glade, 
The winde into their hoUowe pipes is caught : 



1 J^outhey misprints ^ their ' G. 

2 Here also misprints ^ to/ G. 

3 Belles regardes ' beautiful looks ' : Eichardson, as before, 

quotes Fletcher as above : Of Spenser F Q III c 9. 



cheist's tictoeib m heayen". 113 

As seemes the spheres with them they down haue 
brought': 
Like to the seauenfold reede of Arcadie, 
"Which Pan of Syrinx made, when she did flie 

To Ladon sands, and at his sighs sung merily. ^ 

48. 

As melting hony, dropping from the comhe. 

So still the words, that spiing between thy lipps : 

Thy lippes, whear smiling Swetnesse keepes her 

home. 
And heau'nly Eloquence pure manna sipps : 
He that his pen but in that fountaiae dipps, 
How nimbly will the golden phrases flie, 
And shed forth streames of choycest rhetoric, 
Welling celestiall torrents out of poesie ! 

49. 

Like as the thirstie land in Summer's heat. 
Calls to the cloudes, andjgapes at euerie showre. 
As though her hungry clifts all heau'n would eat, 
Which if high God into her bosome powre. 
Though much refresht, yet more she could deuoure; 
So hang the greedie ears of angels sweete. 
And euery breath a thousand Cupids meete, 
Some flying in, some out, and all about her fleet. 

1 Cf. Ovid. Met. i. 691 &c. : Yirgil, Eclog. ii. 31. G. 



114 

50. 

Vpon her breast Delight doth softly sleepe, 

And of Eternal loy is brought abed : 

Those snowie mountelets, through which doe 

creepe 
The milkie riuers, that ar inly bred 
In siluer cistemes, and themselues do shed 
To wearie trauailers, in heat of day 
To quench their fierie thrist, and to allay 
"With dropping nectar floods, the furie of their way 

51. 

If any wander, Thou doest call him backe ; 

If any be not forward, Thou incit'st him ; 

Thou doest expect, if any should growe slacke ; 

If any seeme but willing, thou inuit'st him ; 

Or if he doe offend Thee, Thou acquit'st him ; 
Thou find' st the lost, and f olio w'st him that flies, 
Healing the sicke, and quickning him that dies : 

Thou art the lame man's friendly staffe, the blind 
man's eyes. 

52. 

So faire Thou art, that all would Thee behold ; 
Eut none can Thee behold, Thou art so faire ; 
Pardon, pardon then Thy vassal bold. 
That with poore shadowes striues Thee to compare, 
And match the things, which he knowes match- 
lesse are : 



CHEIST^S YICTOEIE I:N" HEAYEN. 115 

Thou vive^ mirrhour of celestiall grace, 
How can fraile colours pourtraict out Thy face, 
Or paint in flesh Thy beawtie in such semblance 

base ? 

5S. 

Her vpper garment was a silken lawne, 
With needle-worke richly embroidered, 
Which she her selfe with her owne hand had 

drawne, 
And all the world therein had pourtrayed, 
With threads so fresh and liuely coloured, 

That seem'd the world She newe created thear, 
And the mistaken eye would rashly swear 
The silken trees did growe, and the beasts lining 
wear. 

54. 

Low at her feet the Earth was cast alone, 
(As though to kisse Her foot it did aspire, 



1 Eichardson and Cattermole translate ' vive ' into ' Hving' 

and drop the ' 0: ' 
Drummond of Hawthomden has the word and rhyme, e.j, 
* weU-spring of this all, 

Thy father's image yive, 
Word, that from nought did call 
What is, doth reason, Hve.' G* 



116 

And gaue it selfe for her to tread vpon,) 
With, so vnlike and different attire, 
That euerv one that sawe it, did admire^ 

"What it might be, was of so various hewe ; 

Tor to it selfe it oft so dinerse grewe, 
That still it seem'd the same, and still it seem'd a 
newe. 

And here and there, few men she scattered, 
(That in their thought the world esteeme but 

small 
And themselues great,) but she with one fine 

thread 
So short, and small, and slender, woue them all, 
That like a sort of busie ants, that crawle 

About some molehill, so they wandered ; 

And round about the waning Sea^ was shed : 
But, for the siluer sands, small pearls were sprinkled 

56. 

So curiously the vnderworke did creepe. 
And curHug circlets so well shadowed lay, 
That afar off the waters seem'd to sleepe ; 
But those that neare the margin pearle did play, 



1 Wonder. G. 2 = The sea in waves. G-. 



CHRIST^S VICTOETE EST HEAVEl^. 117 

Hoarcely enwaued wear with hastie sway, 

As though they meant to rocke the gentle eare 
And hush the former that enslumhred wear : 

And here a dangerous rocke the flying ships did 
fear. 

57. 

High in the ayrie element there hung 
Another clowdy Sea, that did disdaine 
(As though his purer wanes from heauen sprung) 
To crawle on Earth, as doth the sluggish maine : 
Eut it the Earth would water with his raine, 

That eb'd and flow'd, as winde and season 
would, 

And oft the Sun would cleaue the limber^ mould 
To alabaster rockes, that in the liquid rowl'd. 

58. 

Eeneath those sunny banks, a darker cloud. 
Dropping with thicker deaw, did melt apace, 
And bent it selfe into a hoUowe shroude, 
On which, if Mercy did but cast her face, 
A thousand colours did the bowe enchace, 
That wonder was to see the silke distain'd 



1 Yielding. Cf. Milton P. L. Vav'd their limber 
fans'. VII. 476. G. 



118 cheist's victoeie in heavek. 

With the resplendance from her beawtie gain'd, 
And Iris paint her locks with beames, so liuely 
feign' d. 

59. 

About her head a Cyprus^ heau'n she wore, 
Spread like a veile, ypheld with siluer wire, 
In which the starres so buin't in golden ore, 
As seem'd the azure web was all on fire: 
But hastily, to quench the sparkling ire, 
A flood of milke came rowling vp the shore, 
That on his curded wane swift Argus bore,^ 
And the immortall swan, that did her life deplore. 

60 

Tet strange it was, so many starres to see 
Without a sunne, to give their tapers light : 
Yet strange it was not, that it so should be ; 
Por, where the sunne centers himselfe by right, 
Her face, and locks did flame, that at the sight 



1 * Cyprus ' is our modem word ' crape :' French *c respe- 

crape/ Therefore the text is = a canopy of crape. Cf. 

Milton, n Penseroso, 

^ Sable stole of Cipres lawn 

Over thy decent shoulders draw'n.' G. 

2 Southey repeats the misprint of ^ wore ' here, from 1632 

edn. G. 



CHEIST's YICTOEIE IliT HEAYEJf. 119 

The heauenly veile, that else should nimhly 

mooue, 
Torgot his flight, and all incens'd with lone 
"With wonder, and amazement, did her beantie 

proone. 

61. 

Oner her hnng a canopie of state, 
Not of rich tissew, nor of spangled gold, 
Ent of a substance, though not animate, 
Yet of a heaun'nly and spirituall mould, 
That onely eyes of spirits might behold ; 

Such light as from maine^ rocks of diamound, 
Shooting their sparks at Phebus, would rebound, 
And little angels, holding hands, daunc't all around. 

62. 

Seemed those little sprights, through nimbless bold, 
The stately canopy bore on their wings 
But them it selfe, as pendants, did vphold ; 
Besides the crownes of many famous kings : 
Among the rest, thear Dauid euer sings, 

And now, with yeares growne young, renewes 
his layes 

Vnto his golden harpe, and ditties playes, 
Psalming aloud in well-tun^d songs his Maker's 
prayse. 



1 Sea-rocks G. 



120 

63. 

Thou Self-Idea of all ioyes to come, 
"Whose loue is such, would make the rudest speake, 
"Whose loue is such, would make the wisest dumhe, 
0, when wilt thou thy too-long silence hreake 
And ouercome the strong to saue the weake ! 
If thou no weapons hast, thine eyes will wound 
Th' Almightie's selfe, that now sticke on the 
ground. 
As though some blessed obiect there did them em- 
pound. 

64. 

Ah ! miserable abiect^ of disgrace, 
What happines is in thy miserie ? 
I both must pittie and enuie thy case ; 
For she that is the glorie of the skie, 
Leaues heauen blind, to fix on thee her eye. 

Yet her (though Mercie's selfe esteems not 
small) 

The world despis'd ; they her Eepentance call, 
And she herselfe despises, and the world, and all. 

65. 

Deepely, alas ! empassioned she stood. 
To see a flaming brand, tost yp from hell, 



1 Southey misprints ' object.' G. 



Christ's yictoeie in heaven. 121 

Boyling her heart in her owne lustfull blood, 

That oft for torment she would loudely yell ; 

!N'owe she would sighing sit, and nowe she fell 
Crouching ypon the ground, in sackcloath trust :^ 
Early and late she prayed, and fast she must. 

And all her haire hung full of ashes, and of dust, 

66. 

Of all most hated, yet hated most of all 
Of her owne selfe she was ; disconsolat 
(As though her flesh did but infunerall 
Her buried ghost) she in an arbour^ sat 
Of thomie brier, weeping her cursed state ; 

And her before, a hastie river fled, 

Which her blind eyes with faithfull penance 
fed, 
And all about, the grasse with tears hung downe 
his head. 

67. 

Her eyes, though blind abroad, at home kept 

fast ; 
Inwards they tum'd, and look't into her head: 
At which shee often started, as aghast 
To see so fearfull spectacles of dread ; 

1 Trussed ie dressed or girded. Gr. 

2 Southey has ^ harbour ' G. 



122 cheist's TICTOEIE IX HEATEI?'. 

And witli one hand, her breast she martyredy 
Voimding her heart, the same to mortifie ; 
The other a faire damsel held her by, 

"Which if but once let go, shee snnke immediatly, 

68. 

Eut Faith was qnicke and nimble as the hean'n, 
As if of lone and life shee all had been, 
And though of present sight her sense were reauen. 
Yet shee could see the things could not be seen : 
Eeyond the starres, as nothing wear between, 
She fixt her sight, disdeigning things belowe : 
Into the Sea she could a mountaine .throwe, 
And make the sun to stande, and waters backe wards 
flowe. 

69. 

Such when as Mercie her beheld from high. 
In a darke valley, disown' d with her owne tears, 
One of her Graces she sent hastily. 
Smiling Eirene, ^ that a garland wears 
Of guilded oliue, on her fairer hears, ^ 

To crowne the fainting soules true sacrifice ; 

"Whom when as sad Eepentance comming spies. 
The holy Desperado wip't her swollen eyes. 



1 Peace. G. 2 Hairs. G. 



cheist's victobie in heayex. 123 

70. 

But Mercie felt a kinde remorse to ninne 
Through her soft vaines, and therefore, hying fast 
To giue an end to silence, thus begunne : — 

* Aye-honour' d Eather, if no ioy Thou hast 
Eut to reward desert, reward at last 

The deuil's voice, spoke with a serpent's tongue, — 
Fit to hisse out the words so deadly stung, — 
And let him die, death's bitter charmes so sweetely 
sung. 

71. 

* He was the father of that hopeles season. 
That, to seme other gods, forgot their owne : 
The reason was, Thou wast aboue their reason : 
They would haue any^ gods, rather then none, 
A beastly serpent, or a senselesse stone : 

And these, as Justice hates, so I deplore ; 
Eut the yp-plowed heart, all rent and tore. 
Though wounded by it selfe, I gladly would re- 
store. 

72. 

* He was but dust ; why fear'd he not to fall ? 
And, beeing fall'n, how can he hope to liue ? 

1 Southey misprints ^ other.' G, 



124 cheist's yictoeie in HEAYEIS'. 

Cannot the hand destroy him, that made all ? 

Could He not take away, as well as giue ? 

Should man deprave, and should not God depriue ? 
"Was it not all the world's deceiuing spirit, 
(That, bladder'd yp with pride of his owne merit, 

Pell in his rise) that him of Heau'n did disinherit ? 

73. 

' He was but dust : how could he stand before 
Him? 

And being fall'n, why should he feare to die ? 

Cannot the hand that made him first, restore him ? 

Deprau'd of sinne, should he depriued lie 

Of grace ? can He not hide ^ infirmitie 

That gaue him strength ? vn worthy the forsaking, 
He is, who euer weighs, without mistaking, 

Or Maker of the man, or manner of his making. 

74. 

' Who shall Thy temple incense any more ? 
Or at Thy altar crowne the sacrifice ? 
Or strewe with idle fiow'rs the hallow'd flore ? 
Or what should prayer deck with hearbs and spice 
Her yialls, breathing orisons of price ? 

If all must paie that which all cannot pale ? 



1 Soutkey misprints ^ find.' G. 



125 

first begin with mee, and Mercie slaie, 
And Thy thrice honour' d Sonne, that now beneath 
doth strey. 

75. 

' But if or He or I, may Hue, and speake, 
And Heau'n can ioye to see a sinner weepe ; 
Oh let not Justice yron sceptre breake 
A heart alreadie broke ; that lowe doth creep, 
xind with prone humblesse her feets' dust doth 
sweep. 

Must all goe by desert ? is nothing free ? 

Ah ! if but those that onely woorthy be, 
^N'one should Thee euer see, none should Thee euer 
see. 

76. 

^ What hath man done, that man shall not vndoe, 
Since God to him is growne so neer a kin ? 
Did his foe slay him ? He shall slay his foe : 
Hath he lost all ? He aU againe shall win : 
Is sinne his master ? He shall master sinne : 

Too hardy soule, with sinne the field to trie ; 

The onely way to conquer, was to 1^ie ; 
But thus long Death hath liu'd, and now Death's 
selfe shall die. 



126 cheist's victobie m heayen. 

77 

* He is a path, if any be misled, 
He is a robe, if any naked bee ; 

If any cbannce to hunger. He is bread, 

If any be a bondman. He is free, 

If any be but weake, howe strong is Hee ! 
To dead men life He is, to sicke men health, 
To blinde men sight, and to the needie wealth ; 

A pleasure without losse,^ a treasure without stealth. 

78 

' "Who can forget — ^neuer to be forgot — 
The time, that all the world in slumber lies, 
"When, like the starres, the singing angels shot 
To Earth, and Heau'n awaked all his eyes, 
To see another sunne at midnight rise 

On Earth ? Was neuer sight of pareil ^ fame ; 

Eor God before, man like himselfe, did frame, 
But God himselfe now like a mortall man became. 

79 

A Child He was, and had not learn' t to speake, 
That with His word the world before did make ; 

* His mother's armes Him bore, He was so weake, 

1 < Equal.' G. . 



CHKIST's VICTOEIE IN HEAYEIS^. 127 

That with one hand the vaults of Heau'n could 

shake ; 
See how small roome my infant Lord doth take, 

Whom all the world is not enough to hold ! 

"Who of His yeares, or of His age hath told ? 
Neuer such age so young, ]^neuer a child so old. 

80 

' And yet but newely He was infanted, 
And yet abeadie He^^was sought to die ; 
Yet scarcely borne, alreadie banished 
Not able yet to goe, and forc't to flie : 
But scarcely fled away, when, by and by, 
The tyrant's^ sword with blood is all defiled. 
And Eachel, for her sonnes, with furie wild, 
Cries, * thou cruell king, and, my sweetest 
child!' 

81 

* Egypt his nource became, whear IS'ilus springs, 
Who streit to entertaine, the rising sunne 
The hasty haruest in his bosome brings ; 
But now for drieth^ the fields wear all vndone. 
And now with waters all is ouerrunne : 



1 Misprinted Hyrans' but corrected in 1632 edn. G. 

2 Drought, a 



128 Christ's yictoeie ii^ heayei^. 

So fast tlie CyntMan mountaines powr'd their 

snowe, 
When once they felt the siinne so neere them 

glowe, 
That Mlns Egypt lost, and to a sea did growe. 

82 

* The angells caroU'd lowd their song of peace ; 

The cursed oracles wear strucken dumb ;^^ 

To see their Sheapheard, the poore sheapheards 
press ; 

To see their King, the kingly sophies^ come ; 

And them to guide vnto his Master's home, 
A starre comes dauncing yp the Orient, 
That springs for ioye oyer the strawy tent, 

Whear gold, to make their prince a crowne,.they 
all present. 

83. 

^^ Young John, glad child ! before he could be borne, 
Leapt in the woombe, his ioy to prophecie : ^ 



1 Cf : Milton's Ode <on the Morning of Christ's Nativity 

stanza 19 

' The Oracles are dum, 
No voice or hideous humm 

Runs through the arched roof . , G. 

2 Wise men. Cf Milton, P. L. X. 435 ' Bactrian Sophi ' G. 
i St. Luke I. 41. G. 



cheist's victoeie rN" HEAyE:^^. 129 

Old Anna, though with age all spent and worne, 
Proclaimes her Sanioiir to posteritie : ^ 
And Simeon fast his dying notes doeth plie. ^ 

Oh, how the blessed soules about Him trace ! 

It is the Sire^ of heau'n thou doest embrace : 
Sing, Simeon, sing — sing, Simeon, sing apace 1 ' 

84, 

With that the mightie thunder dropt away 
From God's ynwarie* arme, now milder growne, 
And melted into teares : as if to pray 
For pardon, and for pittie, it had knowne, 
That should haue been for sacred vengeance 
throwne : 
Thereto the armies angelique devo'wd 
Their former rage, and all to Mercie bow'd ; 
Their broken weapons at her feet they gladly 
strow'd. 



1 St. Luke II. 36 G. 

2 St. Luke II. 29. G. 

3 Southey misprints ' fire ' G. 

4 Query =uiiweary, not worn out ? ' Unwary '=un watch- 

ful, unexpecting, seems over-bold. But see The Purple 
Island' canto YI. stanza 19, Hne 4 where this special 
bit is finely praised. Gr. 



130 cheist's victoeie m heavei^. 

85. 

* Ering, bring, ye Graces, all your silver flaskets, 
Painted "with, euery choicest flowre that growes, 
That I may soone vnflow'r your fragrant baskets, 
To strowe the fields with odours whear he goes. 
Let what so e're He treads on be a rose.' 
So downe shee let her eyelids fall, to shine 
Vpon the rivers of bright Palestine, 
Whose woods drop honie, and her rivers skip with 
wine. 




CIEIST'S 
VICTOEIE AND TEIIJMPH. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

Christ brought into the place of combat, the wildernes, among the 
wilde beasts : Mark i., 13 : st. 1. — Described by His proper attri- 
bute, the Mercie of G-od : st. 2, 3 — Whom the creatures cannot 
but adore : st. 4, 5,— by His unitie with the G-odhead : st. 6.— 
His proper place : st. 7. — The beautie of His body, Cant. V., 11 ; 
Psal, XLV., 2 ; Gen. XLIX., 13 ; Cant. Y-, 10 ; and Isa. Llll., 
2 : st. 8 — 15. — By preparing Himself to the combate with His 
adversarie that seem'd what he was not : st. 14, 15. — Some 
devout Essene : st. 16 — 19. — closely tempting him to despaire 
of G-od's prouidence, and prouide for Himself : st. 23, — But was 
what He seemed not, Satan, and would faine haue lead Him, 
1 — To Desperation, characterd by His place, countenance, 
apparell, horrible apparitions, &c. : st. 21— 30. — 2 — To Presump- 
tion : character'd by her place, attendants , &c. : st. 31—36. — 
and by her temptation st. 37. — 3 — To Vainglorie : poetically 
described from the place where her court stood ; a garden : 
St. 38—49, — from her court and courtiers : st. 61. — (1.) Pleasure 
in Drinking: st. 50, 51; in Luxury: st. 52; (2.) Avarice: 
St. 53 — 55 ; (3.) Ambitious honour : st. 56 ; from her throne, 
[and] from her temptation : st. 57 — 69. — The effect of this victorie 
in Satan : st, 60 ; the angels : st. 61 ; the creatures : st. 62. 



CHKIST'S YICTOEIE ON EAKTH. 



1. 

The AH, all alone, she spi'd, alas the while ! 

In shadie darknes, a poore Desolate, 

That now had measured many a wearie mile, 

Through a wast desert, whither heau'nly fate 

And His owne will, Him brought ; He praying 

sate, 
And Him to prey, as He to pray began, ^ 
The citizens of the wilde forrest ran, 
And all with open throat would swallowe whole 

the man. 

2. 

Soone did the Ladie to her Graces crie, 
And on their wings her selfe did nimbly strowe, 
After her coach a thousand Loues did flie^ 
So downe into the wildernesse they throwe ; 



1 Cf. Fuller: 

' On her that pray'd so long, doth prey at lasi' 

* David's Heavie Punishment: st. 14.' G. 



134 cheist's yictoeie on eaeth. 

Whear she, and all her trayne that with her flowe 
Thorough the ayrie wane, with sailes so gay. 
Sinking into His brest that wearie lay, 

Made shipwracke of themselnes, and vanish't quite 
away. 

3. 

Seemed that Man had them devoured all, 
"Whome to deuoure the beasts had made pretence ; 
But Him their saluage thirst did nought appall, 
Though weapons none He had for His defence : 
What armes for Innocence, but innocence ? 

For when they saw their Lord's bright cogni- 
zance 

Shine in His face, soone did they disadvaunce 
And some vnto Him kneele, and some about Him 
daunce. 

4. 

Downe fell the lordly lion's angrie mood, 
And he himselfe fell downe in congies^ lowe ; 
Bidding Him welcome to his wastfull wood ; 
Sometime he kist the grasse whear He did goe, 
And, as to wash His feete he well did knowe, 

With fanning tongue he lickt away the dust; 

And euery oijp would neerest to Him thrust. 
And euery one, with new, forgot his former lust. 

1 Bows = salutations. G. 



chkist's yiCTOEiE o:s eabth. 135 



Vnmindfull of himselfe, to minde his Lord, 
The lamb stood gazing by the tyger's side, 
As though betweene them they had made accord ; 
And on the lion's back the goate did ride, 
Forgetfull of the roughnes of the hide : 

If He stood still, their eyes vpon Him bay ted, 
If walkt, they all in order on Him wayted, 
And when He slept, they as His watch themselnes 
conceited. 

6. 

Wonder doeth call me vp to see — (0 no, 
I cannot see, and therefore sinke in woonder) 
The Man that shines as bright as God, — ^not so, 
Eor God He is Himselfe, that close lies vnder 
That Man, — so close, that no time can dissunder 

That band; yet not so close, but from Him 
breake 

Snch beames, as mortall eyes are all too weake 
Snch sight to see, — or it, if they should see, to 
speake. 

7 

Ypon a grassie hillock He was laid, 
AVith woodie primroses befreckeled; 
Oner His head the wanton shade we s plaid 
Of a wilde oliue, that her bowghs so spread, 



136 chbist's victoeie oisr eaeth. 

As with her leau's she seem'd to crowne His head, 
And her greene armes to embrace the Prince of 

Peace ; 
The snnne so neere, needs must the "Winter 
cease, 
The sunne so neere, another Spring seem'd to in- 
crease. 

8 

His haire was blacke, and in small cnrls did twine, 
As though it wear the shadowe of some light ; 
And vnderneath, His face, as day did shine — 
But sure the day shine d not halfe so bright, 
JS'or the sunne' s shadowe made so darke a night. 
Ynder His lonely locks, her head to shroude, 
Did make^ Humilitie her selfe growe proude : — 
Hither, to light their lamps, did all the Graces 
croude. 

9. 

One of ten thousand soules I am, and more. 
That of His eyes, and their sweete wounds com- 

plaine : 
Sweete are the wounds of Loue, neuer so sore — 
Ah ! might He often slaie me so againe I 



1 Cftttermole reads ^ meek ' G. 



chbist's victoeie on eaeth. 137 

He neuer lines that thus is neuer slaine. 

What boots it watch ? those eyes for all my art, 
Mine owne eyes looking on, hane stole my heart : 

In them Lone bends his bowe, and dips his burning 
dart. 

10. 

As when the sunne, caught in an aduerse clowde, 
Flies crosse the world, and thear a new begets 
The watry picture of his beautie proude : 
Throwes all abroad his sparkeling spangelets,^ 
And the whole world in dire amazement sets, 
To see two dayes abroad at once ; and all 
Doubt whether no we he rise, or now will^ faU : 
So flam'd the Godly flesh, proude of his heau'nly 
tbralL 

11. 

His cheekes as snowie apples, sop't in wine, 
Had their red roses quencht with lillies white, 
And like to garden strawberries did shine, 
Wash't in a bowle of milk, or rose-buds bright 
Ynbosoming their brests against the light : 



1 Spangles = rays of sunlight broken into drops, ie dimi- 

nutive of ' spangles.' G. 

2 Eichardeon and Catfcermole misprint '• he.' G. 

e: 



138 CHEIST's VICTOBIE on EAilTH. 

Here loue-sick soiiles did eat, thear dranke, and 

made 
Sweete-smelling posies, that could neuer fade,— 
Eut worldly eyes Him thought more like some 
liuing shade. 

12. 

For Laughter neuer look't upon His browe, 
Though in His face all smilling ioyes did bi de : 
'No silken banners did about Him flowe — 
Fooles make their fetters ensignes of their pride : 
He was the best cloath'd when naked was His side. * 
A Lambe He was, and woUen fleece He bore, ^ 
Woue with one thread : His feete low sandalls 
wore ; 
But bared were his legges, — 'SO went the times of 
yore. 

13 

As two white marble pillars that vphold 
God's holy place, whear He in glorie sets. 
And rise with goodly grace and courage bold, 



1 Cf. FiiUer 

* Who most was nak^t when cloathed in his weeds ' 
'David's Heavie Ptmishment ' lH. 6. See also the 
first of his before unpublished Epigrams. G. 

2 Bichardson and Cattermole misprint * wore ' G. 



cheist's yictoeie on eaeth. 139 

To beare his temple on their ample ietts, ^ 
Yein'cl eueiy whear with azure rivulets : 
Whom all the people on some holy morne, 
With boughs and flowrie garlands doe^ adorne — - 

Of such, though fairer farre, this temple was vp- 
bome. 

14 

Twice had Diana bent her golden bowe, 
And shot from hea'un her siluer shafts, to rouse 
The sluggish saluages, that den belowe. 
And all the day in lazie couTert drouze. 
Since Him the silent wildemesse did house : 
The heau'n His roofe and arbour harbour was, 
The ground His bed, and His moist pillowe, grasse; 
But fruit thear none did growe, nor riuers none did 
passe. 

15 

At length an aged syre farre off He sawe 
Come slowely footing ; euerie step he guest 
One of his feete he from the graue did drawe ; 
Three legges he had — the wooden was the best ;^ 



1 * Projections ' : it occurs thus m Sir John Davies. G. 

2 Southey misprints Ho ' G. 

3 'You are now come to go on three legs:' Livesey'f 

Greatest Loss,' as before. G. 



1 40 CHUTST^S TICTOKTE 0^^ EAKTH, 

And all the waie he went, he euer blest 
With benedicities, and prayers store ; 
But the bad ground was blesed ne'r the more ; 

And all his head with snowe of age was waxen hore. 

16 

A good old hermit he might seeme to be, 
That for deuotion had the world forsaken, 
And now was trauailing some saint to see, 
Since to his beads he had himselfe betaken, 
"Whear all his former sinnes he might awaken. 
And them might wash away with dropping brine*, 
And almes, and fasts, and chnrche's discipline ; 
And dead, might rest his bones vnder the holy 
shrine. 

17. 

But when he neerer came, he lowted lowe 
With prone obeysance, and with curt'sie kinde. 
That at his feete his head he seemd to thro we ; — 
What needs him now another saint to finde ? 
Affections are the sailes, and faith the wind, 
That to this saint a thousand soules conueigh 
Each hour : happy pilgrims thither strey ! 
What caren they for beasts, or for the wearie way? 

18. 

Sooto the old palmer his deuotions sung. 
Like pleasing anthem,^^ moduled in time ; 



CHEIST's VICTOEIE 0]^ EAETK. 141 

Por well that aged syre could tip his tongue 
With golden foyle of eloquence, and lime, 
And licke his rugged speech with phrases prime. 
^ Ay me, quoth he, how many yeares haue beene, 
Since these old eyes the sunne of heau'n haue 
scene ! 
Certes the Sonne of Heau'n they now behold, I 
weene. 

19 

* Ah, mote my humble cell so blessed be, 
As Heau^n to welcome in his lowely roofe, 
And be the Temple for Thy Deitie ! 
Loe how my cottage worships Thee aloofe. 
That vnder ground hath hid his head, in proofe 
It doth adore Thee with the seeling lowe — 
Here honie, milke, and chesnuts wild doe growe ; 
The boughs a bed of leaues ypon Thee shall 
bestowe. 

20. 

^But oh ! he said, and therewith sigh't full deepe, — 
The heau'ns, alas ! too enuious are gTOwne, 
Because our fields Thy presence from them keepe ; 
For stones doe growe where corne was lately sown: 
(So stooping downe, he gathered vp a stone :) 
But Thou with come canst make this stone to 
eare. 



142 CHEIST^S VICTOEIE ON EAETH. 

What needen^ we the angrie heau'ns to feare ? 
Let them enuie vs still, so we enioy Thee here.' 

21. 

Thus on they wandred : but thc^e holy weeds 
A monstrous serpent, and no man, did couer : 
So vnder greenest hearbs the adder feeds : 
And round about that stinking corps did houer 
The dismall prince of gloomie night, and ouer 
His euer-damned head the Shadowes err'd^ 
Of thousand pecant ghosts, vnseene, vnheard, 
And all the Tyrant feares — and all the Tyrant 
fear'd. 

22. 

He was the sonne of blackest Acheron, 
Whear many frozen soules doe chattring lie, 
And rul'd the burning wanes of Phlegethon, 
Whear many more in flaming sulphur frie. 
At once compel' d to line, and forc't to die ; 
Whear nothing can be heard for the loud crie 
Of ' Oh !' and ^ Ah ! ' and ' Out alas ! that I 
Or once againe might Hue, or once at length might 
die!' 



1 Eicliardson and Cattermole misread 'What need we 
their....* G. 

2 Wandered = hovered. G. 



CHEIS'/S VICTOiaE OJS^ EAETH. 143 

23. 
Ere long they came neere to a balefall bowre, 
Much like the mouth of that infernall caue, 
That gaping stood, all commers to deuoure. 
^^ Darke, dolefull, dreary, — like a dreary graue, 
That still for carrion carkasses doth crane :"^ 
The ground no hearbs but venomous, did beare, 
IN'or ragged trees did leaue, but euery whear 
Dead bones and skulls wear cast, and bodies hanged 
wear. 

24. 
Vpon the roofe tho bird of sorrowe sat 
Elonging^ ioyfull day with her sad note, 
And through the shady aire, the fluttring bat 
Did wane her leather sayles, and blindely flote ; 
While with her wings the fatall shreech-owle smote 
Th' vnblessed house ; thear, on a craggy stone, 
Celeno^ hung, and made his direfull mone, 
And all about the murdered ghosts did shreek and 
grone. 

25. 
Like clowdie moonshine, in some shadowie groue 
Such was the light in which Despaire did dwell ; 



1 Spenser : R Q., B. i., c. 9., st. aS. G. 

2 Lengtliemng : Dr. Eicliardsoii, as before, quotes Fletcher 

aboTe. G. 

3 Celaeno : one of the harpies. Cf ^^nied, iii., 211. G-. 



144 cheist's yictoeie on eaeth. 

But he himselfe with night for darknesse stroue. 
His black uncombed locks disheveird fell 
About his face ; through which, as brands of Hell, 
Sunk in his skull, his staring eyes did glowe, 
That made him deadly looke ; their glimpse did 
showe 
Like cockatrice's eyes, that sparks of poyson thro we. 
26. 

His cloaths wear ragged clouts, with thomes pind 

fast; 
And, as he musing lay, to stonie fright 
A thousand wild Chimeras w^uld him cast : 
As when a fearefuU dreame, in mid'st of night, 
Skips to the braine, and phansies to the sight 
Some winged furie, strait the hasty foot, 
Eger^ to flie, cannot plucke vp his root, 
The voyce dies in the tongue, and mouth gapes 
without boot^ 

27. 

I'^ow he would dreame that he from heauen fell, 
And then would snatch the ayre, afraid to fall ; 
And now he thought he sinking was to hell, 
And then would grasp the earth ; and now his stall 

1 Eager. G. 

2 To no purpose = dumb. G. 



cheist's victoeie on eaeth. 145 

Him seemed Hell, and then he ont would crawle ; 
And euer, as he crept, would squint aside. 
Lest him, perhaps, some furie had espide. 

And then, alas ! he should in chaines for euer bide. 

28. 

Therefore he softly shrunke, and stole away, 
!N'e euer durst to drawe his breath for feare. 
Till to the doore he came, and thear he lay 
Panting for breath, as though he dying were ; 
And still he thought he felt their craples teare^ 

Him by the heels backe to his ougly denne ; 

Out faine he would haue leap't abroad, but then 
The Heau'n, as Hell he fear'd, that punish guilty 
men. 

29. 

Within the gloomie hole of this pale wight 
The serpent woo'd Him with his charmes to inne; 
Thear He might baite the day, and rest the night: 
Eut vnder that same baite a fearful grin^ 
Was readie to intangle Him in sinne. 



1 ' Claws :' Spenser F. Q. v. 8. 40. G. 

2 = Gin or trap, as in the English Bible of 1611 in Job 

XYiii, 9 : Psalms, cxl., -5 : cxli., 9. Consult Mr. W. 
Aldis Wright's inestimable ' Bible Word-Book ' under 



146 cheist's victoeie on eauth. 

Eut He vpon ambrosia daily fed, 
That ;grew in Eden, thus He answered : 
So both away wear caught, and to the Temple fled. 
30. 

"Well knewe our Sauiour this the serpent was, 

And the Old Serpent knewe our Sauiour well ; 

JN'euer did any this in falshood passe, 

IsTeuer did any Him in truth excell : 

"With Him we fly to Heau'n, from Heau'n we fell 
"With him : but nowe they both together met 
Vpon the sacred pinnacles, that threat, 

"With their aspiring tops, Astrsea's starrie seat. 

31 

Here did Presvmption her pauillion spread, 
Ouer the Temple, the bright starres among ; 
(Ah ! that her foot shouM trample on the head 
Of that most reuerend place !) and a lewd throng 
Of wanton boyes sung her a pleasant song 

Of loue, long life, of mercie, and of grace ; 

And euery one her deerely did embrace, 
And she herselfe enamour'd was of her owne face. 



* gin.' No one who values genuine help toward 
better Bible-knowledge will go without this ' Word- 
Book.' His truly mtclitim in i^arvo. G. 



147 

32 

A painted face, belied with vermeyl store, 
Whicli light Euelpis^ euery day did trimme, 
That in one hand a guilded anchor wore ; 
I^ot fixed on the rocke, bnt on the brimme 
Of the wide aire, she let it loosely swimme : 

Her other hand a sprinkle^ carried, 

And euer, when her Ladie wanered. 
Court holy- water all vpon her sprinkeled. 

33. 

Poor foole ! she thought herselfe in wondrous price 
"With God, as if in Paradise she wear ; 
But, wear she not in a foole' s paradise. 
She might haue seen more reason to despere : 
But Him she, like some ghastly fiend, did feare ; 
And therefore, as that wretch hew'd out his cell 
Ynder the bowels, in the heart of Hell, 
So she aboue the moon, amid the starres would dwelL 



1 'Good Hope^ personified: I have not found it elsewhere 

Cf. 'The Purple Island,' c. ix., st» 32, where she is 
personified as Elpinus. G. 

2 A vessel having a ' rose ' for scattering water finely, as 

used in a garden: here perhaps the thing used in 
Roman Catholic churches for ' sprinkling ' holy water. 



148 chmst's victoeie on eaeth. 

34. 

Her tent with sunny cloudes was seel'd aloft, 
And so exceeding shone with a false light, 
That heau'n it selfe to her it seemed oft ; 
Heau'n without clondes to her deluded sight, 
But cloudes withouten heau'n it was aright ; 
And as her house was built, so did her braine 
Build castles in the aire, with idle paine. 
But heart she neuer had in all her body vaine. 

35, 

Like as a ship in which no ballance^ lies, 
"Without a pilot, on the sleeping wanes, 
Pairely along with winde and water flies. 
And painted masts with silken sayles embraues, ^ 
That Neptune ['s] selfe the bragging vessel saues, 

To laugh a while at her so proud aray ; 

Her waning streamers loosely shoe lets play. 
And flagging colours shine as bright as smiling day : 

36. 

But all so soone as heau'n his browes doth bend, 
She veils her banners, and pulls in her beames, 
The emptie barke the raging billows send 
Yp to the Olympique wanes, and Argus seemes 

1 Qu : ballast ? G. 2 Beautifies. G. 



cheist's victoeie on eabth. 149 

Againe to ride vpon our lower streames : 
Eight so Presvmption did her selfe hehane, 
Tossed about with euery stormie waue, 

And in white lawne shee went, most like an angeL 
hrane. 

37. 

Gently our Sauiour shee began to shrive,^ 
"Whether He wear the Sonne of God, or no ;, 
For any other she disdeign'd to wive : 
And if He wear, shee bid Him fearles throw 
Himselfe to ground ; and th^arwithall did show 
A flight of little angels, that did wait, 
Ypon their glitttering wings, to lateh^ Him strait^ 
And longed on their backs to feele His glorious 
weight. 

38. 

Eut when she saw her speech preuailed nought. 
Her selfe she tombled headlong to the flore : 
Eut Him the angels on their feathers caught, 
And to an ayrie mountaine nimbly bore, 
Whose snowie shoulders, like some chaulkie shore. 



1 To examine as a confessor. G. 

2 Catch : Dr. Richardson, as before, quotes Fletcher above 

Richardson and Cattermole misread ' launch ' G. 



150 Christ's victoeie on eaeth. 

Eestles Olympus seem'd to rest vpon, 
"With all liis swimming globes: so both are 
gone, 

The Dragon with the Lamb — Ah ! vnmeet paragon ! 

39. 

All suddenly the hill his snowe deuours, 

In liew whereof a goodly garden grew, 

As if the snow had m.elted into flow'rs, 

"Which their sweet breath in subtill vapours threw, 

That all about perfum ed spirits flew : 

For what so euer might aggrate the sense, 
In all the world, or please the appetence, 
Heer it was powred out in lavish affluence. 

40. 

!N"ot louely Ida might with this compare, 
Though many streames his banks besiluered ; 
Though Xanthus with his golden sands he bare, 
Nor Hibla,^ though his thyme depastured 
As fast againe with honie blossomed ; 
'Ne Ehodope, ne Tempo's flow'ry playne : 
Adonis' garden was to this but vayne, 
Though Plato on his beds a flood of praise did 
rayne. 



1 Hybla. G. 



cheist's victoeie ok eauth. 151 

41. 

For in all these, some one thing most did grow,, 
But in this one, grew all things else beside ; 
For sweet Varietie herselfe did throw 
To euery banke : here all the ground she dide 
In lillie white ; there pinks eblazed wide ; 

And damask't all the earth ; and here shee shed 
Blew violets, and there came roses red ; 
And euery sight^the yeelding sense, as captiue led^ 

42. 

The garden like a ladie faire was cut, 
That lay as if shee slumber' d in delight, 
And to the open skies her eyes did shut ; 
The azure fields of heau'n wear 'sembled right 
In a large round, set with the flow'rs of light : 
The flowr's-de-luce, and the round sparks of 

deaw, 
That hung vpon the azure leaues, did shew 
Like twinkling starrs, that sparkle in th' eau'ning 
blew. 

43. 

Vpon a hillie banke her head shee cast, 
On which the bowre of Yaine-delight was built ; 
White and red roses for her face wear plac't, 
And for her tresses marigolds wear spilt : 



152 

Them broadly sliee displaid, like flaming guilt, 
Till in tlie ocean the glad day wear drown'd ; 
Then \i^ againe her yellow locks she wonnd, 

And with greene fiUetts in their prettie calls^ them 
bound. 

44. 

"What should I here depeint her lillie hand, 
Her veines of violets, her ermine brest, 
Which thear in orient colours lining stand ; 
Or how her gowne with silken leaues is drest ; 
Or how her watchmen, arm'd with boughie crest, 
A wall of prim^ hid in his bushes bears,' 
Shaking at euery winde their leauie spears, 
WTiile she supinely sleeps, ne to be waked fears ! 

45. 

Ouer the hedge depends the graping* elme, 
Whose greener head empurpuled in wine, 
Seemed to wonder at his bloodie helme. 
And halfe suspect the bunches of the vine ; 
Least they, perhaps, his wit should vndermine. 



1 Caul = small caps. Cf. Aldis Wright, as before. G. 

2 Privet. G. 

3 Bearings = fi-uit ? G. 

3 = grape-supporting. G. 



cheist's victorie on earth. 153 

Eor well he knewe such fruit he neuer bore : 
Eut her weake armes embraced him the more, 
And with her ruby grapes laught at her para- 
mour. 

46. 

Vnder the shadowe of these drunken elmes 
A fountaine rose, where Pangloretta vses 
(When her some flood of fancie ouerwhelms, 
And one of all her fauorites she chuses) 
To bath herselfe, whom she in lust abuses, 
And from his wanton body sucks his soule, 
"Which, drowned in pleasure in that shaly ^ bowle 
And swimming in delight, doth amarously rowle ! ^ 

47. 

The font of siluer was, and so his showrs 
In siluer fell, onely the guilded bowles 
(Like to a fomace, that the min'rall powres) 
Seem'd to haue mouFt it in their shining holes ; 
And on the water, like to burning coles. 
On liquid siluer, leaues of roses lay : 
Eut when Panglorie here did list to play, 
Rose-water then it ranne, and milke it rain'd they 
say. 

1 Shallow. G. 

2 Nearly all this stanza is omitted by Cattermole. G. 



154 CHEIST^S VICTORIE ON EAETH. 

48. 

The roofe tHcke cloudes did paint, from which 

three boyes 
Three ^gaping mermaides with their eawrs^ did 

feed, 
Whose brests let fall the streame, with sleepie 

noise, 
To lions mouths, from whence it leapt with speede, 
And in the rosie lauer seem'd to bleed. 
The naked boyes vnto the water's fall. 
Their stonie nightingales had taught to call, 
When Zephyr breathed into their watry interall 

49. 

And all about, embayed in soft sleepe, 
A heard of charmed beasts aground were spread. 
Which the faire witch in goulden chaines did keepe, 
And them in willing bondage fettered ; 
Once men they liu'd, but now the men were dead, 
And tum'd to beasts ; so fabled Homer old, 
That Circe, with her potion, charm'd in gold, 
Vs'd manly soules in beastly bodies to immould. 

50. 

Through this false Eden, to his leman's bowre, 
(Whome thousand soules devoutly idolize) 

1 Ewers =vases. G, 



CHEIST^S VICTOEIE ON EAUTfl. 165 

Our first destroyer led our Sauiour : 
Thear in the lower roome, in solemne wise, 
They daunc't around, aud powr'd their sacrifice 
To plumpe Lyseus,^ and among the rest, 
The ioUy priest, in yuie garlands drest, 
Chaunted wild orgialls, in honour of the feast. 

51 

Others within their arbours swilling sat, 
(Por all the roome about was arboured) 
With laughing Bacchus, that was growne so fat, 
That stand he could not, but was carried. 
And euery euening freshly watered, 

To quench his fierie cheeks, and all about 
Small cocks broke through the wall, and 
sallied out 
Flagons of wine, to set on fire that spueing rout. 

52. 

This their inhumed soules esteem' d their wealths, 
To crowne the bouzing kan from day to night, 
And sicke to drinke themselues, with drinking 

healths ; 
Some vomitting, all drunken with delight. 
Hence to a loft, carv'd all in yvorie white, 



1 Bacchuti G. 



156 cheist's tictoeie on eaeth. 

They came, wliear whiter ladies naked went, 
Melted in pleasure and soft languishment, 
And sunke in beds of roses, amourous glannces 
sent.^ 

53. 

riie, flie, Thou holy Child, that wanton roome ! 
And thou, my chaster Muse, those harlots shun, 
And with Him to a higher storie come, 
"Whear mounts of gold, and flouds of siluer run, 
The while the owners, with their wealth vndone, 
Starve in their store, and in their plenty pine. 
Tumbling themselues vpon their heaps of mine,^ 
Glutting their famish't soules with the deceitful 
shine. 

54. 

Ah ! who was he such pretious perills found ? 
How strongly [N^ature did her treasures hide, 
And threw vpon them mountains of thicke ground, 
To darke their orie lustre ! but queint Pride 
Hath taught her sonnes to wound their mother's 
side. 



1 Cattermole drops out st. 51 & 52 without indicating the 

omission. G, 

2 =Heaps from the mine. G. 

3 Eichardson and Cattermole misread ' him G 



•cheist's victoeie ok eaeth. 157 

And gage^ the depth, to search for flaring shells, 
In whose bright bosome spumie^ Bacchus swells. 
That neither heau'n nor earth henceforth in safetie 
dwells. 

55, 

sacred hunger of the greedie eye, 
"Whose neede hath end, but no end covetise, 
Emptie in fulnes, rich in pouertie, 
That hauing all things, nothing can suffice, 
How thou befanciest the men most wise ! 

The poore man would be rich, the rich man 
great. 

The great man king, the king, in God's owne seat 
Enthroned, with mortal arme dares flames and 
thunder threat. 

56, 

Therefore aboue the rest Ambition sat ; 
His court with glitterant pearle was all enwall'd, 
And round about the wall in chaires of state, 
And most majestique splendor, were enstall'd 



2 Gauge. G. 

3 Foamy : Dr. Ricliardson as before, quotes Fletcher 

above. Cf Milton P.L. vi. 479 ' fierie spume.' G. 



158 ch:rist's victoeie on eaeth. 

A hundred kings, whose temples wear impal'd 
In goulden diadems, set here and thear 
With diamounds, and gemmed euery whear, 

And of their golden virges' none disceptred wear. 

57. 

High over all Panglorie's blazing throne, 
In her bright turret, all of christal wrought, 
Like Phaebus lampe, in midst of heauen, shone; 
"Whose starry top with pride infernall fraught, 
Selfe-arching columns to vphold wear taught : 
In which her image still reflected was 
By the smooth christall, that, most like her 
glasse, 
In beauty and in frailtie, did all others passe. 

58. 

A siluer wande the sorceresse did sway, 
And, for a crowne of gold, her haire she wore ; 
Onely a garland of rose-buds did play 
About her locks ; and in her hand she bore 
A hoUowe globe of glasse, that long before 
She full of emptinesse had bladdered, 
And all the world therein depictured : 
Whose colours, like the rainbowe, euer vanished. 



Eods : Dr, Kichardson here also quotes Fletcher. G. 



CHEIST^S VICTORIE ON EAETH. 159 

59. 

Such watry orbicles^ young boyes do blowe 
Out of their sopy shels, and much admire 
The swimming world, which tenderly they rowe 
"With easie breath, till it be waned higher : 
But if they chaunce but roughly once aspire, 

The painted bubble instantly doth fall. 

Here when she came, she 'gan for musique call, 
And sung this wooing song, to welcome Him 
withall : — 



Loue is the blossome whear thear blowes 
Euery thing that Hues or growes : 
Loue doth make the heau'ns to moue, 
And the sun doth bume in loue : 
Loue the strong and weake doth yoke, 
And makes the yuie climbe the oke ; 
Vnder whose shadowes lions wilde, 
Soft'ned by loue, grow tame and mild ; 
Loue no med'cine can appease. 
He bumes the fishes in the seas ; 
-NTot all the skill his wounds can stench,^ 



1 Soap-bubbles. Dr. Ricbardson, as before quotes Fletcher 

above. G. 

2 Staunch. G. 



160 chbist's victorie on eakth. 

JN'ot all the sea his fire can quench : 

Lone did make the bloody spear 

Once a lenie coat to wear, 

While in his leaues thear shrouded lay 

Sweete birds, for loue, that sing and play : 

And of all loue's ioyfuU flame, 

I the bud and blossome am : 
Onely bend Thy knee to mee, 
Thy wooing shall Thy winning bee. 

See, see the flowers that belowe, 
Now as fresh as morning blowe ; 
And of all, the virgin rose, 
That as bright Aurora showes : 
How they all \Tileaued die, 
Loosing their virginitie ; 
Like vnto a summer-shade, 
But now borne, and now they fade. 
Euery thing doth passe away, 
Thear is danger in delay : 
Come, come gather then the rose. 
Gather it, or it you lose : 
All the sand of Tagus* shore 
Into my bosome casts his ore : 
All the valleys' swimming come 
To my house is yeerely borne ; 
Euery grape of euery vine 



cheist'8 victoeie on eaeth. 161 

Is gladly bruised to make me wine, 

While ten thousand kings, as proud, 

To cany vp my train haue bow'd. 

And a world of ladies send me 

In my chambers to attend me : 

All the starres in heau'n that shine^ 

And ten thousand more, are mine. 
Onely bend Thy knee to mee, 
Thy wooing shall Thy winning bee. 

60. 

Thus sought the dire Enchauntress in His minde 

Her guilefull bayt to haue embosomed ; 

But He her charmes dispersed into winde, 

And her of insolence admonished ; 

And all her optique glasses shattered. 

So with her sire to Hell shee took her flight, 
(The starting ayre flew from the damned spright,) 

Whear deeply boty aggriev'd, plunged themselue^ 
in night. 

61. 

But to their Lord, now musing in His thought, 

A heauenly volie of light angels flew, 

And from His Father Him a banquet brought, 

1 = Preaumption and Satan G. 



162 Christ's victorie on earth. 

Through the fine element ; for well they knew, 
After His Lenten fast He hungrie grew ; 
And, as He fed, the holy quires combine 
To sing a hymne of the celestiall Trine ; 
All thought to passe, and each was past all thought 
divine. 

62. 

The birds' sweet notes, to sonnet out their ioyes, 
Attempered to the layes angelicall ; 
And to the birds, the winds attune their noyse, 
And to the winds, the waters hoarcely call, 
And Eccho back againe revoyced all ; 

That the whole valley rung with victorie. 

Eut now our Lord to rest doth homeward flie : 
See how the Mght comes stealing from the moun- 
tains high ! 




CHEIST'S 
TRIVMPH OVER DEATH. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

Christ's tryumph ouer death on the crosse, exprest. I. In generall 
bv His ioy to vndergoe it, singing before He went to the garden : 
Matt xxvi 30, st. 1 — 3 — by His griefe in the vndergoing it : st. 
4 — 6 — by the obscure fables of the Gentiles typing it : st. 7 — 8 — by 
the cause of it in Him, His loue : st. 9— by the effect it should 
haue in us : st. 10 — 12— by the instrument the cursed tree : st. 13 — 
1 — ^11. Exprest in particular : 1. By His fore-passion in the 
garden : st. 14 — 25 — by His passion it selfe amplified. CI.) From 
the general causes : st. 26 — 27 ; parts, and effects of it : st. 28 — 29. 
' (2,) From the particular causes : st. 30—31 parts, and effects 
of it — in heauen : st, 32—36 — in the heauenly spirits : st. 37 — 
in the creatures sub-celestiall : st. 38 — in the wicked Jewes : st. 
39— in Judas: st. 40— 51— in the blessed saints, loseph of 
Arimathea, &c., st. 52—67. 



w 



':Mf^m^% 



l^iil: 



CHRIST'S TRIYMPH OYER DEATH. 



1. 

So downe the siluer streames of Eridan,^ 
On either side bank't with a lilly wall, 
Whiter then both, rides the triumphant swan. 
And sings his dirge, and prophesies his fall. 
Dining into his watrie funerall : 
Eut Eridan to Cedron must submit 
His flowry shore ; nor can he enuie it. 
If when Apollo sings, his swans doe silent sit. 

2. 

That heau'nly voice I more delight to heare. 
Then gentle a3rres to breath, or swelling wanes 
Against the sounding rocks their bosomes teare, 
Or whistling reeds, that rutty^ Jordan lanes, 



1 Eden ? There can be no reference to amber-yielding 

Eridanus. G. 

2 Query ^ course '-forming Jordan? Dr. Eichardson as 

before quotes under ' rut. ' G. 



166 chhist's teivmph ovee death. 

And with tlieir verdure his white head embraues, 
To chide the windes, or hiuing bees, that flie 
About the laughing bloosms of sallowie/ 

Eocking asleepc the idle groomes that lazie lie. 

3. 

And yet, how can I hear Thee singing goe, 
When men incens'd with hate Thy death foreset ? 
Or els, why doe I heare Thee sighing so, 
When Thou inflam'd with loue, their life doest get, 
That loue, and hate, and sighs, and songs are met ; 
But thus, and onely thus Thy loue did craue, 
To sende Thee singing for vs to Thy graue, 
While we sought Thee to kill, and Thou sought' st 
vs to saue. 



When I remember Christ our burden beares, 

I looke for glorie, but finde miserie ; 

I looke for ioy, but finde a sea of teares ; 

I looke that we should Hue, and finde Him die ; 

I looke for angels' songs, and heare Him crie : 

Thus what I looke I cannot finde so well ; 

Or rather, what I finde, I cannot tell. 
These bankes so narrowe are, those streames so 
highly swell. 

1 Willows ; Cf. Dr llichardson as before, s.v. G. 



CHRlST^S TEIVMPH OVER DEATH. 167 

5. 

Christ suffers, and in tMs His teares begin ; 

Suffers for vs — and our ioy springs in tliis ; 

Suffers to death — here is His manhood seen ; 

Suffers to rise — and here His Godhead is. 

Eor man, that could not by himselfe haue ris, 
Out of the graue doth by the Godhead rise, 
And God, that could not die, in manhood dies, 

That we in both might line by that sweete sacrifice. 

6 

Goe, giddy braines, whose witts are thought so fresh, 
Plucke all the ffowr's that nature forth doth thro we, 
Goe sticke them on the cheekes of wanton flesh ; 
Poore idol (forest at once to fall and growe) 
Of fading roses, and of melting snowe ! 

Your songs exceede your matter ; this of mine 
The matter which it sings, shall make diuine : 
The starres dull puddles guild, in which their 
beauties shine. 

7. 

Who doth not see drown' d in Deucalion's^ name 
(When earth his men, and sea had lost his shore) 
Old Noah? and in Msus'^ lock, the fame 

1 Ovid, Met. i. 260, &c. G. 

2 ApoUod. III., 15. § § 5, 6, 8. G. 



168 cheist's tkiymph oyee beath. 

Of Sampson yet aliue ; and long before 
In Phaethon's, mine owne fall I deplore : 
Ent lie that conquered hell, to fetch againe 
His virgin widowe, by a serpent slaine, 
Another Orpheus was then dreaming poets feigne: 

8, 

This tanght the stones to melt for passion, 
And dormant sea, to heare him, silent lie ; 
And at his voice, the watrie nation 
To flocke, as if they deem'd it cheape, to buy 
"With their own^ deaths his sacred harmonie : 
The while the wanes stood still to heare his song, 
And steadie shore wau'd with the reeling throng 
Of thirstie soules, that hung vpon his fluent tongue. 

"What better friendship then to couer shame ? 

"What greater loue then for a friend to die ? 

Yet this is better to asself the blame ; ^ 

And this is greater, for an enemie : 

Eut more then this, to die, not suddenly, 

ITor with some common death, or easie paine, 
Eut slowely, and with torments to be slaine ; 

depth, without a depth, farre better seene, then 



1 Self-blame. O. 2 Said. G. 



CHBIST's TErVMPH OYER DEATH. 169 

10. 

And yet the Sonne is hnmbled for the slaue, 
And yet the slaue is proude before the Sonne ; 
Yet the Creator for His creature gane 
Himselfe and yet the creature hasts to nume 
From his Creator, and self- good doth shunne ; 
And yet the Prince, and God Himselfe doth crie 
To man, His traitonr, pardon not to flie : 
Yet man his^ God, and tray tour doth his prince 
defie, 

11. 

Who is it sees not that he nothing is, 
But he that nothing sees ? "What weaker brest, 
Since Adam's armour fail'd, dares warrant his ? 
That, made by God of all His creatures best, 
Strait made himselfe the woorst of all the rest : 

If any strength we haue, it is to ill ; 

But all the good is God's, both pow'r and will: 
The dead man cannot rise, though he himselfe 
may kill. 

12. 

But let the thorny Schools their punctualls 
Of wills, all good, or bad, or neuter diss : ^ 
Such ioy we gained by our parentalls. 



1 Cattermole misprints 'is.' G. 2= Discuss? G, 

M 



170 chbist's teitmph over death. 

That good, or bad, whether I cannot wiss, 

To call it a mishap or happy miss, 

That fell from Eden, and to Heau'n did rise : 
Albee the mitred card'nall more did prize 

His part in Paris then his part in Paradise. ^ 

13. 

A tree was first the instrument of strife, 
Whear Eue to sinne her soul did prostitute ; 
A tree is now the instrument of life. 
Though ill that trunke and this faire body suit : 
Ah, cursed tree ! and yet blessed fruit ! ^ 
That death to Him, this life to ys doth giue : 
Strange is the cure, when things past cure reviue, 
And the Physitian dies, to make his patient Hue. 



1 A favourite monition of the Puritan Divinity, e,g, 

Thomas Brooks of Cardinal Borbonius : Cf. my edn. 
of Brooks, Vol. iv, p. 55: and under Bourbon ia 
Index. G. 

2 Very pretty is S. Austia's remark upon this passage : 

[St. Luke XXIII., 43] " Christ," saith he, " in rescuing 
the poor thief upon the cross was but quits with the 
devil, for the devil took man from God out of the midst 
of Paradise; Christ takes this poor man from Satan, 
when he was no less than in the very jaws of heU. 
Satan ruined man on the forbidden tree, and Christ 
saves them on the cursed tree'. March in loco quoted 
by Ford in the Gospel of St. Luke Illustrated. G. 



cihjrist's teiymph oyee death. 171 

14. 

Sweete Eden was the arbour of delight, 
Yet in his hony flowr's our poyson blew ; 
Sad Gethseman the bowre ot balefuU night, 
Whear Christ a health of poyson for ys drewe, 
Yet all our hony in that poyson grewe : 

So we from sweetest flowr's could sucke our 
bane, 

And Christ from bitter venome could againe 
Extract life out of death, and pleasure out of 
paine. 

15. 

A man was first the author of our fall, 

A man is now the author of our rise ; 

A garden was the place we perisht all, 

A garden is the place He payes our price ; 

And the Old Serpent with a newe deuise. 
Hath found a way himselfe for to beguile : 
So he, that all men tangled in his wile. 

Is now by one man caught, beguil'd with his 
owne guile. 

16. 

The dewie night had with her frostie shade 
Immant'led all the world, and the stiffe ground 
Sparkled in yce ; onely the Lord, that made 
All for Himselfe, Himselfe dissolved found : 



172 Christ's teiymph oyee death. 

Sweat without heat, and bled without a wound : 
Of heau'n, and earth, and God, and man forlore, ^ 
Thrice begging helpe of those whose sinnes He 
bore, 

And thrice denied of those, not to denie had swore. ^ 

17. 

Yet had He beene alone of God forsaken, 
Or had His bodie beene imbroyl'd alone 
In fierce assault ; He might, perhaps haue taken 
Some ioy in soule, when all ioy els was gone ; 
Eut that with God — and God to heau'n is flow'n ; 
And Hell it selfe out from her graue doth rise, 
Elack as the starles night : and with them flies. 
Yet blacker then they both, the sonne of blas- 
phemies. 



1 Forlorn = lost: Dr Eichardson, as before, quotes 

Fletcher above. G. 

2 Eichardson and Cattermole change ^ them ' into ' one,' 

and, literally taken, the correction is admissible : bnt 
they overlook— as is commonly done — that ail the dis- 
ciples had made the same profession and promise with 
St. Peter, eg. St. Mark xiv., 31.. [St. Peter] "He 
spake the more vehemently, If I should die with Thee, 
I will not denie Thee in any wise. Likeivise also said they 
all'' — By ^ forsaking ' Him and , ' fleeing ' they all 



Christ's teivmph oyee death. 173 

18. 

As wlien tlie planets with vnkiiid aspect, 
Call from her caues the meager pestilence ; 
The sacred vapour, eager to infect, 
Obeys the voyce of the sad influence. 
And vomits vp a thousand noysome sents : 
The well of life, flaming his golden flood 
"With the sicke ayre, fevers the boyling blood, 
And poysons all the bodie with contagious food. 

19. 

The bold physitian, too incautelous. 
By those he cures himselfe is murdered ; 
Kindnes infects, pitie is dangerous ; 
And the poore infant, yet not fully bred, 
Thtar whear he should be borne, lies buried : 
So the darke prince, from his infemall cell, 
Casts vp his grisely torturers of Hell, 
And whets them to revenge, with this insulting 
spell : — 



^ denied their Lord, though only St. Peter's articulate 
denial is told in detail. He indeed excelled the others, 
for he ' followed ' still, albeit ' afar off. ' Hence Fletcher, 
in the spirit, and lookLag deeper than Richardson, 
Cattermole and the rest, is accurate. G. 



174 cheist's teivmph oyee death. 

20. 

* See how the world smiles in etemall peace ; 
While we, the harmles brats and rustie throng 
Of night, our snakes in curies doe pranke and 

dresse : 
"Why sleep our drouzie scorpions so long ? 
Whear is our wonted vertue to doe wrong ? 
Are we our selues ? or are we Graces growen ? 
The sonnes of hell or heau'n ? was neuer knowne 
Our whips so ouer-moss't and brands so deadly 
blowne ! 

21. 

* long desired, neuer-hop't for howre, 
Vhen our Tormentour shall our torments feele ! 
Arme, arme, your selues, sad Bires^ of my pow'r, 
And make our ludge for pardon to vs kneele : 
Slise, launch, dig, teare Him with your whips of 

Steele : 
My selfe in honour of so noble prize, 
Will powre you reaking blood, shed with the 
cries 
Of hastie heyres,^ who their owne fathers sacrifice. 



1 DirsB , the Furies. G. 2 Heirs, G. 



chkist's teivmph ovee death. 175 

22. 

"With that a flood of poyson, blacke as Hell, 
Out from his filthy gorge the beast did spue, 
That all about His blessed bodie fell, 
And thousand flaming serpents hissing flew 
About His soule, from hellish sulphur threw, 
And euery one brandish't his firie tongue, 
And woorming all about His soule they clung ; 
But He their stings tore out, and to the ground 
them flung. 

23. 

So haue I seene a rock's heroique brest, 
Against proud Neptune, that his ruin threats, 
"When all his wanes he hath to battle prest. 
And with a thousand swelling billows beats 
The stubborne stone, and foams, and chafes, and 
frets 

To heaue him from his root, vnmooued stand ; 

And more in heapes the barking surges band, 
The more in pieces beat, flie weeping to the strand, 

24. 

So may wee oft a vent'rous father see, 
To please his wanton sonne, his onely ioy, 
Coast all about, to catch the roving bee, 
And stung him self e, his busie hands employ 
To saue the honie for the gamessme boy ; 



176 CHBIST^S TKIYMPH OVEE DEATH. 

Or from the snake her rank'rous teeth erace, 
Making his child the toothles serpent chace, 
Or, with his little hands, her tumorous ^ gorge 
embrace. 

25, 

Thus Christ Himselfe to watch and sorrow giues, 
While deaw'd in heavie sleepe dead Peter lies : 
Thus man in his owne graiie securely lines , 
"While Christ aliue, with thousand horrours dies, 
Yet more for theirs then His owne pardon cries : 

No sinnes He had, yet all our sinnes He hare ; 

So much doth God for others' euills care. 
And yet so careles men for their owne euills are. 

26. 

See drouzie Peter, see whear ludas wakes, 
Whear ludas kisses Him whom Peter flies : 
kisse more deadly then the sting of snakes ! 
Palse loue more hurtfuU then true injuries ! 
Aye me ! how deerly God His seruant huies ! 
Eor God His man at His owne blood doth hold, 
And man his God, for thirtie pence hath sold : 
So tinne for siluer goes, and dunghill drosse for 
gold. 



1 Southey misprints ' tim'rous.' G. 



cheist's teiymph ovee death. 177 

27. 

Yet was it not enough, for sinne to chnse 
A semant, to betray his Lord to them ; 
Eut that a snbiect must his king accuse ; 
Ent that a pagan must his God condemne ; 
Ent that a Eather mnst His Sonne contemne, 

Eut that the Sonne must His owne death desire ; 

That prince and people, seruant and the Sire, 
Gentil and Jewe, and He against Himselfe con- 
spire ? 

28. 

Was this the oyle, to make thy saints adore Thee, 
The froathy spittle of the rascall throng ? 
Are these the virges^ that ar borne before Thee, 
Ease whipps of corde, and knotted all along ? 
Is this thy golden scepter against wrong, 
A reedie cane ? is that the crowne adomes 
Thy shining locks, a crowne of spiny thomes ? 
Ar thease the angels' himns, the priests' blasphe- 
mous scornes ? 

29. 

Who euer sawe Honour before asham'd ; 
Afflicted Majestic ; debased Height ; 
Innocence gailtie ; Honestie defam'd ; 

1 Eods, as before. G, 



178 

Libertie bound ; Health sick ; the sunne in night ? 

Eut since such wrong was offred vnto Eight, 
Our night is day, our sicknes health is growne 
Our shame is veil'd : this now remaines alone 

Por vs : since He was ours that wee bee not our 
owne. 

30. 

Mght was ordeyn'd for rest, and not for paine, 
Eut they, to paine their Lord, their rest contenme ; 
Good lawes to saue what bad men would haue 

slaine. 
And not bad iudges, with one breath, by them 
The innocent to pardon, and condemne : 
Death for reuenge of murderers, not decaie 
Of guiltles blood : but now, all headlong sway 
Man's murderer to saue, man's Sauiour to slaie. 

3L 

Praile multitude ! whose giddy lawe is list^ 
And best applause is windy ^flattering ; 
Most like the breath of which it doth consist, 
1^0 sooner blowne but as soone vanishing. 
As much desir'd as little profiting ; 



1 Choice. Gr. 



chbist's teiymph oyek death. 179 

That makes the men that haue it oft as light 
As those that giue it ; which the proud inuite, 
And feare ; — the bad man's friend, the good man's 
hypocrite. 

32. 

It was but now their sounding clamours sung, 
* Blessed is He that comes from the Most High !' 
And all the mountaines with ^ Hosanna ! ' rung ; 
And nowe, * Away with Him — away ' ! they crie, 
And nothing can be heard but ^ Crucifie ! ' 

It was but now, the crowne it selfe they saue 
And golden name of King ynto Him gaue ; 
And nowe, no king, but onely Caesar, they will haue. 

33. 

It was but now they gathered blooming May, 
And of his armes disrob'd the branching tree. 
To strowe with boughs and blossomes all Thy^ way ; 
And now the branchlesse truncke a crosse for Thee 
And May dismai'd. Thy coronet must be : 

It was but now they wear so kind, to throwe 
Their owne best garments whear Thy feet 
should goe. 
And now, Thy selfe they strip, and bleeding 
wounds they show. 

1 Cattermole misprints ^ the ' G. 



180 cheist's tkiymph ovee death. 

• 34. 

See whear the Author of all life is dying : 
fearefull day I He dead, what hope of liuing ? 
See whear the hopes of all our Hues are buying : 
O chearfuU day ! they bought, what feare of grieu- 

ing? 
Loue, loue for hate, and death for life is giuing : 
Loe, how His armes are stretcht abroad to grace 

thee. 
And, as they open stand, call to embrace thee ! 
"Why stai'st Thou then, my soule ? ilie, flie, 

thither, hast thee ! 

35. 

His radious head, with shamefull thomes they 

teare. 
His tender backe, with bloody whipps they rent, 
His side and heart they furrowe with a spear, 
His hands and feete, with riuing nayles they tent ;^ 
And, as to disentrayle His soule they meant, 
They iolly at his griefe, and make their game, 
His naked body to expose to shame. 
That all might come to see, and all might see, that 
came. 



1 Stretch : Dr. Richardson has overlooked this example. G. 



Christ's teiymph oyeh death. 181 

26. 

Whereat the hean'n put out his guiltie eye, 
That durst behold so execrable sight, 
And sabled all in blacke the shadie skie ; 
And the pale starres, strucke with vnwonted frighty 
Quenched their euerlasting lamps in night ; 
And at His birth, as all the starres heau'n had 
"Wear not enough, but a newe star was made, 
So now, both newe and old and all, away did fade, 

37. 

The mazed^ angels shooke their fierie wings, 
Eeadie to lighten vengeance from God's throne, 
One downe his eyes ypon the manhood flings, 
Another gazes on the Godhead : none 
Bnt surely thought his wits were not his owne ; 
Some flew to looke if it wear very Hee 
Eut when God's arm vnarmed they did see, 
Albee they sawe it was, they vow'd it could not 
bee. 

38. 

The sadded aire hung all in cheerelesse blacke. 
Through which the gentle windes soft sighing flewe. 
And lordan into such huge sorrowe brake, 
(As if his holy streame no measure knewe,) 

1 Sonthey misprints ^ amazed.' G. 



182 

That all his narrowe bankes he ouerthrewe; 
The trembling earth with horrour inly shooke, 
And stnbborne stones, snch grief e vnus'd to 
brooke, 
Did burst, and ghosts awaking from their graues 
gan looke. 

39. 

The wise philosopher cried, all agast, 
' The God of nature surely languished !' 
The sad Centurion cried out as fast, 
The Sonne of God, the Sonne of God was dead ;'^ 
The headlong lew hung downe his pensiue head, 
And homewards far'd ; and euer, as he went, 
He smote his brest, half desperately bent ; 
The verie woods and beasts did seeme His death 
lament. 

40. 

The gracelesse traytour round about did looke 
(He lok't not long, the deuill quickely met him) 
To finde a halter, which he found, and tooke ; 
Onely a gibbet nowe he needes must get him ; 
So on a withered tree he fairly set him. 



1 St. Luke XXIII., 47. G, 



cheist's trivmph oyer death. 183 

And help't him fit the rope, and in his thought 
A thousand furies with their whippes, he brought ; 
So thear he stands, readie to Hell to make his 
vault. 

41. 

For him a waking bloodhound, yelling loude, 
That in his bosome long had sleeping layde ; 
A guiltie conscience, barking after blood, 
Pursued eagerly, ne euer stai'd 
Till the betrayer's selfe it had betray' d. 

Oft chang'd he place, in hope away to winde; 

Eut change of place could neuer change his 
minde : 
Himselfe he flies to loose, and followes for to finde. 

42. 

Thear is but two wayes for this this soule to haue, 
When parting from the body, forth it purges ; 
To fly to heau'n, or fall into the graue, 
Where whippes of scorpions, with the stinging, 

scourges, 
Peed on the howling ghosts, and firie surges 
Of brimstone, rowle about the caue of night ; 
"Where flames doe burne, and yet no sparke of 

light. 
And fire both fries and freezes the blaspheming 

spright. 



184 

43. 

Thear lies tlie captiue soule, aye-sighing sore, 
Beckoning a thousand yeares since her first bands ; 
Yet stales not thear, bnt addes a thousand more, 
And at another thousand meuer stands, 
But tells to them the starres, and heapes the sands : 

And now the starres are told, and sands are 
runne, 

And all those thousand thousand myriads done. 
And yet but now, alas ! but now all is begunne. 

44. 

"With that a flaming brand a furie catch't 

And shooke, and tos't it rounde in his wilde 

thought : 
So from his heart all ioy, all comfort srtatch't 
With eu'ry starre of hope ; and as he fought^ 
(With present feare, and future griefe distraught) 
To flie from his owne heart, and aide implore 
Of Him, the more He giues, that hath the more, 
Whose storehouse is the heauens, too little for his 
store : 



1 I read 'fought:' but I am not sure that * sought' is 
not intended. G. 



Christ's teivmph over death. 185 

45. 

* Stay wretch on earth/ cried Satan — 'restles rest; 
Ejiow'st thou not Justice lines in heau'n ; or can 
The worst of creatures Hue among the best : 
Among the blessed angels cursed man ? 

Will ludas now become a Christian ? 

Whither will Hope's long wings transport thy 

minde ? 
Or canst thou not thy selfe a sinner finde ? 
Or cruell to thy selfe, wouldst thou haue Mercie 
kinde? 

46. 

* He gave thee life : why shouldst thou seeke to 

slay Him? 
He lent thee wealth : to feed thy avarice ? 
He cal'd thee friend : what, that thou shouldst 

betray Him ? 
He kis't thee, though He knew His life the price ; 
He wash't thy feet : shouldst thou His sacrifice ? 
He gaue thee bread, and wine. His bodie, blood, 
And at thy heart, to enter in He stood ; 
Eut then I entred in, and all my snakie brood. ^ 



1 Euripides, Bacch. 816, 954, &c. : Theocritus xxvi^ 
10. G. 



186 chbist's teiymph over death. 

47. 

As when wild Pentheus, growne madde with fear, 
Whole troupes of hellish haggs about him spies ; 
Two bloodie suns stalking the duskie sphear, 
And twofold Thebes runs rowling in his eyes ; 
Or through the scene staring Orestes flies, 
"With eyes flung back vpon his mother's ghost, 
That, with infernall serpents all embost, 
And torches quencht in blood, doth her stem 
Sonne accost : ^ 

48. 

Such horrid Gorgons, and misformed formes 
Of damned fiends, flew dauncing in his heart, 
That, now, ynable to endure their stormes, 
^ Flie, flie,' he cries, ' thyselfe, what ere thou art, 
Hell, hell, alreadie bumes in eu'ry part.' 
So downe into his torturer's armes he fell, 
That readie stood his funeralls to yell, 
And in a clowd of night to waft him quick ^ to 
Hell. 

49. 

Yet oft he snach't, and started as he hung : 
So when the senses halfe enslumb'red lie. 



1 See Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus. G. 
% Living, alive, as before. G. . 



cheist's teivmph ovee death. 187 

The headlong bodie, readie to be flung 

Ey the deluding phansie, from some high 

And craggie rock, recovers greedily, 

And clasps the yeelding pillow, halfe asleep 
And, as from heav'n it tombled to the deepe, 

Peeles a cold sweat through euery trembling 
member creepe. 

50. 

Thear let him hang, embowelled in blood,^ 
Thear neuer any gentle shepheard feed 
His blessed flocks, nor euer heav'nly flood^ 
Fall on the cursed ground, nor holesome seed, 
That may the least delight or pleasure breed : 
Let neuer Spring visit his habitation. 
But nettles, kixe,^ and all the weedie nation, 
With emptie elders grow : sad signes of desolation! 

51. 

Whear let the Dragon keep his habitance. 
And stinking karcasses be throwne avaunt ; 
Faunes, Sylvans, and deformed Satyrs daunce, 
Wild -cats, wolues, toads, and skreech-owles direly 
chaunt ; 



1 Misprinted ' Whear '. G. 

2 Richardson and Cattermole misprint ' food/ G. 

3 Wild plum. G. 



188 Christ's tkivmph over death. 

Thear euer let some restles spirit haunt, 
With hollow sound, and clashing cheynes, to 

scarr 
The passenger, and eyes like to the starr 

That sparkles in the crest of angrie Mars afarr. 

52. 

But let the Messed deawes for euer showr 
Ypon that ground, in whose faire fields I spie 
The bloodie ensigne of our Sauiour : 
Strange conquest, whear the Conquerour must die, 
And He is slaine, that winns the victorie ! 
But He that lining, had no house, to owe it, 
Ifow had no graue: but loseph must bestowe it: 
runne, ye saints apace, and with sweete flowers 
bestrowe it ! 

53. 

And ye glad spirits, that now sainted sit 
On your caelestiall thrones, in beawtie drest, 
Though I your teares recoumpt, let not it 
With after-sorrowe wound your tender brest, 
Or with new griefe vnquiet your soft rest : 
Inough is me your plaints to sound againe 
That neuer could inough my selfe complaine : 
Sing, then, sing aloude, thou Arimathean 
swaine! 



cheist's teiymph oyer death. 189 

54. 

But long he stood, in his faint arms vphoulding 
The fairest spoile heau'n ener forfeited, 
With such a silent passion griefe vnfoulding 
That, had the sheete but on himselfe beene spread, 
He for the corse might haue been buried 

And with him stood the happie theefe that stole 
By night his owne saluation, and a shole 
Of Maries, drowned, round about him sat, in dole. 

55. 

At length (kissing His lipps before he spake, 
As if from thence he fetcht againe his ghost) 
To Mary thus, with teares, his silence brake : 

* Ah, woefull soule ! what ioy in all our cost, 
When Him we hould, we haue alreadie lost t 

Once did'st thou loose thy Sonne, but found'st 

againe, 
Now find^st thy Sonne, but find'st Him lost and 

slaine. 
Ay mee ! though He could death, how canst thou 

life sustaine? 

56. 

* Whear ere, deere Lord, thy Shadowe houereth, 
Blessing the place, wherein it deigns abide, 
Looke how the Earth darke horrour couereth, 
Cloathing in moumfuU black her naked side. 



190 cheist's triymph ovee death. 

Willing her shadowe vp to heau'n to glide, 
To see, and if it meet Thee wandring thear ; 
That so, and if her selfe must misse Thee hear, 

At least her shadow may her dutie to Thee bear. 

57. 

' See how the siinne in day-time cloudes his face, 
And lagging Vesper, loosing his late teame, 
Porgets in heau'n to runne his nightly race ; 
But, sleeping on bright Oeta's^ top, doeth dreame 
The world a chaos is ; no ioyfull beame 

Looks from his starrie bowre, the heau'ns do 



mone, 



And trees drop teares, least we should greeue 
alone ; 
The windes haue leam't to sigh, and waters 
hoarcely grone. 

58. 

'And you, sweete flowers, that in this garden growe, 
"Whose happie states a thousand soules enuie ! 
Bid you your owne felicities but knowe, 
Yourselues, vnpluckt^ would to his funerals hie — 
You neuer could in better season die : 



1 Mountain in south of Thessaly. G. 

2 Southey misprints * uppluck'd/ G. 



CHEIST's TErVMPH OVER DEATH. 191 

that I might into your places slide ! 
The gate of heau'n stands gaping in His side f- 
Thear in my soule shonld steale, and all her faults 
should hide.^ 

59. 

* Are theas the eyes that made all others blind ? 
Ah ! why ar they themselues now blemished? 
Is this the face, in which all beawtie shin'd ? 
What blast hath thus His flowers debellished ? 
Ar these the feete that on the watry head 

Of the vnfaithfuU ocean passage found ? 

Why goe they now so lowely vnder ground, 
Wash't with our woorthless tears, and their owne 
precious wound ? 

60. 

' One hem but of the garments that He wore 
Could medicine^ whole countries of their paine ; 
One touch of this pale hand could life restore ; 
One word of these cold lips reuiue the slaine : 



1 Cf. Hebrews x., 20. G. 

2 " Eock of Ages ! cleft for me 

Let me hide myself in Thee." — Toplady. G. 

3 A Shakesperian word. See Cymbeline iv. 2, and 

Othello iii. 3. G. 



192 CHKIST^S TBIVMPH OYER DEATH. 

Well, the blinde man, Thy Godhead might main- 
taine : 
What, though the sullen Pharises repined? 
He that should both compare, at length would 
finde 
The blinde man onely sawe, the seers all wear 
blinde. 

61. 

* Why should they thinke Thee worthy to be 

slaine ? 
Was it because Thou gau'st their blinde men eyes? 
Or that Thou mad' st their lame to walke againe? 
Or for Thou heal'dst their sick mens' maladies ? 
Or mad'st their dumbe to speake, and dead to 
rise? 
could all these but any grace haue woon, 
What would they not to saue Thy life haue 
done? 
The dumb man would haue spoke, and lame man 
would haue runne. 
62. 

* Let mee, let me neere some fountaine lie. 
That through the rocke heaues vp his sandie head; 
Or let me dwell vpon some mountaine high. 
Whose hoUowe root and baser parts ar spread 



193 

On fleeting waters, in his bowells bred, 
That I their steames, and they my teares may 

feed : 
Or, cloathed in some hermit's ragged weed. 
Spend all my dales in weeping for this cursed 
deed. 

63. 

* The life, the which I once did lone, I leaue ; 

The lone, in which I once did line, I loath ; 

I hate the light, that did my light bereaue : 

Eoth lone and life, I doe despise yon both. 

that one grane might both our ashes cloath ! 
A lone, a life, a light, I now obteine, 
Able to make my age growe young againe — 

Able to sane the sick, and to reuiue the slaine. 

64. 

Thus spend we teares, that neuer can be spent, 
On Him, that sorrow now no more shall see ; 
Thus send we sighs, that neuer can be sent, 
To Him that died to line, and would not be, 
To be thear whear He would. Here burie we 
This heau'nly earth ; here let it softly sleepe, 
The fairest Sheapheard of the fairest sheep :' 
So all the bodie kist, and homeward went to 
weepe. 



CHRIST S TEIVMPH OYEE DEATH. 194 

65. 

So home their bodies went, to seeke repose, 
But at the graue they left their soules behinde : 
who the force of lone caelestiall knowes ! 
That can the cheynes of nature's self vnbinde, 
Sending the bodie home without the minde : 
Ah, blessed virgin ! what high angel's art 
Can euer coumpt thy teares, or sing thy smart, 
When euery naile that pierst His hand, did pierce 
thy heart ? 

66. 

So Philomel, perch't on an aspin sprig, 
"Weeps all the night her lost virginitie, 
And sings her sad tale to the merrie twig. 
That daunces at such ioyfull miserie. 
If e euer lets sweet rest inuade her eye ; 
Eut leaning on a thorne her daintie chest, 
For feare soft sleepe should steale into her brest. 
Expresses in her song greefe not to be exprest. 

67. 

So when the larke — poore birde ! afarre espi'th 
Her yet vnfeather'd children (whom to saue 
She striues in yaine) slaine by the fatall sithe. 
Which from the medowe her greene locks doeth 
shaue. 



CHRIST'S TRIVMPH OVEK DEATH. 



195 



That their warme nest is now become their graue; 
The wofiill mother vp to heauen springs, 
And all about her plaintine notes she flings, 

And their vntimely fate most pittifally sings. 




CHEIST'S 
TEIVMPH AFTEE DEATH. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

Christ's triumpli after death, 1 — In His Besurrection, manifested by 
the effects in the creatures : st. 1 — 7.— In Himselie : st. 8 — 12, — 
In His Ascension into Heauen ; whose ioyes are described : st. 
13— 16.— (1) By the accesse of all good, the blessed societie of 
saints, angels, &c. : st. 17 — 19. — The sweete quiet and peace 
inioyed under God : st. 20. — Shadowed by the peace we enioy 
vnder our soueraigne : st. 21 — 26. — The beautie of the place : 
St. 27. — The caritiei (as the Schoole calls it) of the saints bodies : 
St. 28— 31.— The impletionof the appetite : st. 32, 33,— The ioy of 
the senses, &c. ; st. 34. — (2) By the amotion of all euill : st. 35, 
86. — By the accesse of all good againe : st. 37.— In the glorie of 
the holie citie : st. 38. — In the beatificall vision of Grod : st, 39 — 
42.— And of Christ : st. 43. [seqq 



1 Query, clarity ? G. 



CHRIST'S TRIYMPH AFTER DEATH. 



1. 

BvT now the second morning, from her bowre 
Began to glister in her beames ; and no we 
The roses of the Day began to flowre 
In th' easterne garden ; for hean'ns smiling browe 
Halfe insolent for ioy begunne to showe : 
The early snnne came linely dauncing out, 
And the bragge lambes ranne wantoning abont, 
That heaii'n and earth might seeme in tryumph 
both to shout. 



^ Th' engladded Spring, forgetfuU now to weepe, 
Began t' eblazon from her leauie bed ; 
The waking swallowe broke her halfe-yeare's^ 

sleepe. 
And euerie bush lay deepely pui-pured 



200 cheist's teivmph after death. 

With violets ; the wood's late- wintry head 
Wide flaming primroses set all on fire, 
And his bald trees put on their greene attire, 

Among whose infant leaues the ioyeous birds conspire. 

3. 

And now the taller sonnes (whom Titan warmes) 
Of ynshome mountaines, blowne with easie windes. 
Dandled the morning's childhood in their armes, 
And if they chaunc't to slip the prouder pines, 
The vnder corylets^ did catch the shines, 

To guild their leaues ; sawe neuer happie yeare 
Such ioyfuU triumph and triumphant cheare, 
As though the aged world anew created wear. 

4. 

Say Earth, why hast thou got thee new attire, 
And stick' st thy habit full of dazies red ? 
Seems that thou doest to some high thought aspire. 
And some newe-found-out bridegroome mean'st to 

wed : 
Tell me, ye trees, so fresh appareed. 

So neuer let the spitefull canker wast you, 
So neuer let the heau'ns with lightening blast you, 
"Why goe you now so trimly drest, or whither hast 
you? 

1 Copses. G. 



cheist's trivmph aftee death. 201 

5. 

Answer me, lordan, why thy crooked tide 
So often wanders from his neerest way, 
As though some other way thy streame would slide, 
And fain salute the place where something lay ? 
And you sweete birds, that, shaded from the ray. 
Sit carolling and piping griefe away. 
The while the lambs to h^are you daunce and 
play, 
Tell me, sweete birds, what is it you faine would 
say? 

6 

And thou, fair spouse of Earth, that euerie yeare 

Gett'st such a numerous issue of thy bride. 

How chance thou hotter shin'st, and draw'st more 

neere ? 
Sure thou somewhear some worthie sight hast 

spide. 
That in one place for ioy thou canst not bide :^ 
And you, dead swallowes, that so liuely now 
Through the flit- aire your winged passage rowe, 
How could new life into your frozen ashes flowe ? 



1. Southey misprints ' hide ' G. 

2. FnttiQg=moYiiig ? G. 



202 

7 

Ye primroses and purple violets,^ 
Tell me, why blaze ye from your leauie bed, 
And wooe mens' hands to rent you from your sets, 
As though you would somewhear be carried, 
With fresh perfumes and velvets garnished ? 
But ah ! I neede not aske, t'is surely so, 
You all would to your Sauiour's triumphs goe : 
There would ye all waaite and humble homage doe, 

8. 

Thear should the Earth herselfe with garlands 

newe 
And louely flowr's embellished, adore : 
Such roses neuer in her garland grewe, 
Such lillies neuer in her brest she wore. 
Like beautie neuer yet did shine before : 

Thear should the sunne another sunne behold, 
From whence himselfe borrowes his locks of gold, 
That kindle heau'n, and earth with beauties mani- 
fold. 

9. 

There might the violet, and primrose sweet, 
Beames of more liuely, and more louely grace, 



1 Giles and Phineas Fletcher reserve their daintiest praise 
for these flowers. See our Essay. G, 



cheist's teivmph after death. 20S 

Arising from their beds of incense meet ; 

Thear should the swallowe see new life embrace 

Dead ashes, and the grane vnheaP his face, 
To let the lining from his bowels creepe, 
Ynable longer his owne dead to keepe : 

There heau'n and earth should see their Lord 
awake from sleepe. — 

10. 

Their Lord, before by others iudg'dto die 
Now ludge of all Himselfe ; before forsaken 
Of all the world, that from His aide did flie, 
JSTow by the saints into their armies taken ; 
Before for an vnworthie man mistaken, 
JS'owe worthy to be God confest ; before 
"With blasphemies by all the basest tore, 
]N'ow worshipped by angels, that Him lowe 
adore. 

11. 

Whose garment was before indipt in blood, 
But now imbright'ned into heau'nly flame, 
The sunne it selfe outglitters,. though he should 
Climbe to the toppe of the celestiall frame, 



1 Unveil or uncoyer. G. 



204 Christ's triymph after death. 

And force the starres go^ hide themselues for shame : 
Before, that vnder earth was buried 
But nowe aboue^ the heau'ns is carried, 

And thear for euer by the angels heried !^ 

12. 

So fairest Phosphor, the bright morning starre, 
But neewely washt in the greene element, 
Before the drouzie Mght is halfe aware. 
Shooting his flaming locks with deaw besprent. 
Springs liuely vp into the Orient, 

And the bright droue, fleec't in gold, he chaces 
To drinke that, on the Olympique mountaine 
grazes. 
The while the minor planets forfeit all their faces. 

13. 

So long He wandred in our lower spheare. 
That heau'n began his cloudy starres despise, 
Halfe enuious, to see on Earth appeare 
A greater light then flam'd in his own skies : 
At length it burst for spight, and out thear flies 



1 Richardson, Southey and Cattermole misprint 'to.' G. 

2 Misprinted originally ' about ' : corrected to ' above ' in 

1632 edn. G 

3 Honoured, praised. G. 



cheist's teivmph after death. 205 

A globe of winged angels, swift as thonglit 
That on their spotted feathers liuely caught 
The sparkling Earth, and to their azure fields it 
brought. 

14. 

The rest, that yet amazed stood belowe, 
With eyes cast vp, as greedie to be fed, 
And hands vpheld, themselues to ground did 

throwe : 
So when the Troian boy was ravished, 
As thi'ough th' Idalian woods they sale he fled. 
His aged gardians stood all dismai'd. 
Some least he should have fallen back afraid, 
And some their hasty vowes and timely prayers 
said. 

15. 

* Tosse vp your heads, ye euerlasting gates, ^ 

And let the Prince of glorie enter in ! 

At whose braue voly of sideriall States, 

The sunne to blush and starres grow pale wear seene; 



1 Dr. J. M. Neale in Ms " Hymns, chiefly Mediaeval, on 
the Joys and Glories of Paradise" (1866) gives a selec- 
tion of stanzas — beginning with this — from this ' Part ' 
of Fletcher's poem, and pronounces them " perhaps the 
most beautiful original verses, in a strictly rehgious 
poem, which the Enghsh language posesses " and adds 



206 Christ's tbivmph aftee death. 

"When leaping first from Earth He did begin 
To climbe his angells wings : then open hang 
Your christall doores ! so all the chorus sang 

Of heau'nly birds, as to the starres they nimbly 
sprang. 

16. 

Hearke ! how the floods clap their applauding hands, 
The pleasant valleyes singing for delight ; 
The wanton mountaines daunce about the lands, 
The while the fleldes struck with the heau'nly 

light. 
Set all their flow'rs a smiling at the sight ; 

The trees laugh with their blossoms, and the 

sound 
Of the triumphant shout of praise, that crown' d 
The flaming Lambe, breaking through Heau'n hath 
passage found. 

17. 

Out leap the antique patriarchs, all in hast, 
To see the powr's of Hell in triumph lead, 



further " The reader to whom this poem is new, will, I 
think allow that nothing more exquisite was ever 
written than the 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, and 13 stanzas as here 
numbered : corresponding with 20, 28, 30, 33, 35 and 
36 of the complete Poem. G. 



Christ's teiymph aptek death. 207 

And with, small starres a garland intercha'st 
Of oline-leanes they bore, to crowne His Head, 
That was before with thomes degloried : 

After them flewe the prophets, brightly stol'd 
In shining lawne, and wimpled manifold. 
Striking their yuorie harpes, strung all in chords of 
gold. 

18. 

To which the saints victoiions caroUs sung, 
Ten thousand saints at once ; that with the sound 
^ The hollow vaults of heau'n for triumph rung : 
The cherubins their clamours did confound 
"With all the rest, and clapt their wings around : 
Downe from their thrones the dominations flow e 
And at His feet their crownes and scepters 
throwe, 
And all the princely soules fell on their faces lowe. 
19. 

'Not can the martyrs' wounds them stay behind, 
Eut out they rush among the heau'nly crowd. 
Seeking their heau'n out of their heau'n to find, 
Sounding their siluer trumpets out so loude, 
That the shrill noise broke through the starrie 
cloude, 
And all the virgin soules, in pure arraie. 
Came dauncing forth, and making joyous plaie : 
So Him they lead along into the courts of day. 



208 Christ's teivmph after death. 

20. 

So Him they lead into the courts of day, 
Whear neuer warre nor wounds abide Him more ; 
But in that house etemall peace doth plaie, 
Acquieting the soules that newe before, ^ 
Their way to heaven through their owne blood did 
skore, 
But now, estranged from all migerie, 
As farre as heau'n and earth discoasted lie, 
Swelter^ in quiet wanes of immortalitie ! 

21. 

And if great things by smaller may be ghuest, 
So, in the mid'st of JSTeptune's angrie tide 
Our Brita[i]n Island, like the weedie nest 
Of true halcyon, on the waves doth ride. 
And softly sayling skornes the water's pride : 
While all the rest, drown'd on the Continent 
Add tost in bloodie wanes, their wounds lament, 
And stand, to see our peace, as struck with woon- 
derment. ® 



1 Sonthey misprints ' besore ' G. 

2 = Grow warm : Dr. Neale changes to 

' They bathe in quiet waves of immortality '. G. 

3 Misnnmbered in edition of 1610 and also in those of 

163^and 1640 as '20' fbisj : so that there appear to 
be only 50 stanzas while there actually are 51, G. 



cheist's teivmph aptee death. 209 

22. 

The ship of France, religious wanes doe tosse, 
And Greec[e] it selfe is now growne barbarous ; 
Spain's childi^en hardly dare the ocean crosse, 
And Beige's field lies wast[e] and ruinous ; 
That vnto those, the heau'ns are invious, 

And vnto them, themselues ar strangers growne, 
And vnto these, the seas ar faithles knowne, 
And vnto her, alas ! her owne is not her owne. 

23. 

Here only shut we lanus yi^on gates. 
And call the welcome Muses to our springs, 
And are but^ pilgrims from our heav'nly states 
The while the trusty Earth sure plentie brings, 
And ships through Neptune safely spread their 
wings. 
Go blessed Island, wander whear thou please, 
Vnto thy God, or men, Heau'n, lands or seas : 
Thou canst not loose thy way, thy king with all 
hath peace. 

24. 

"Deere prince ! thy subjects ioy, hope of their heirs, 
Picture of Peace, or breathing image rather; 
The certaine argument of all our pray'rs, 

1 Southey misprints here * put' for ^biit' G. 



210 CHEIST^S TEIVMPH APTEE DEATH. 

Thy Harrie's^ and thy countrie's louley father ; 

Let peace in endles ioyes for euer bath her 
"Within thy sacred brest, that at thy birth 
Brongh'st her with thee from Heau'n, to dwell 
on Earth, 

Making our Earth a Hean'n, and paradise of mirth. 

25. 

Let not my liege misdeem^ these hnmble laies 
As lickt with soft and snpple blandishment, 
Or spoken to disparagon his praise ; 
Eor though pale Cynthia, neere her brother's tent, 
Soone disappeares in the white firmament, 

And giues him back the beames before wear his ; 

Yet when he verges, or is hardly ris, 
She the vine image of her absent brother is. 

26. 

iffor let the Prince of Peace, his beadsman blame, 
That with his stewart dares his Lord compare. 
And hean'nly peace with earthly qniet shame : 
So pines to lowely plants compared ar. 



1 =Heiiry's i. e. Prince Henry whose death was so 

lamented by the nation. Gr. 

2 Southey misprints ' disdain * G. 



cheist's tbivmph apteb death. 211 

And lightning Phoebus to a little starre : 
And well I wot, my rimej albee ynsmooth 
'Ne sales but what it meanes, ne meanes but 
sooth, 
Ne harmes the good, ne good to harmefull person 
doth. ^ 

27. 

Gaze but vpon the house whear man embowr's ; 
With flowr's and rushes paued is his way, 
Whear all the creatures ar his seruitours ; 
The windes do sweepe his chambers euery day ; 
And cloudes doe wash his rooms; the seeling 

gay, 

Starred aloft, the guilded knobs embraue : 
If such a house God to another gaue. 
How shine those glittering courts. He for Himselfe 
will haue ? 

28. 

And if a sullen cloud, as sad as night, 
la which the sunne may seeme embodied, 



1 Cattermole drops, without marking the omission, stanza* 
21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26. G. 



212 cheist's trivmph aftee death. 

Depur'd^ of all Ms drosse, we see so^ white 

Burning in melted gold his wat'rie head, 

Or round with yuorie edges siluered, 
What lustre super-excellent will He 
Lighten on those that shall His sunneshine see, 

In that all-glorious court in which all glories he ? 

29. 

If but one sunne whith his diffusive fires, 

Can paint the starres, and the whole world with 

light, 
And ioy, and life into each heart inspires, 
And eu'ry saint shall shine in heau'n, as bright 
As doth the sunne in his transcendent might, 
(As faith may well beleeue what Truth once 

sayes) 
What shall so many sunnes' united rayes, 
But dazle all the eyes that nowe in heau'n we 
praise ? 

30. 

Here let my Lord hang yp his conquering launch, 
And bloody armour with late slaughter warme, 
And looking downe on His weake militants, 
Behold His saints, mid'st of their hot alarme 



I Purified. G. 2 Cattermole misprints 'no.' G. 



CDIEIST^S TEIVMPH AFTER DEATH. 215 

Hang all their golden hopes vpon His arme ; 
And in this lower field dispacing wide, 
Through windie thoughts, that would their 
sayles misguide, 

Anchor their fleshly ships fast in His wounded side. 

31. 

Here may the band, that now in tryumph shines, 
And that (before they wear inuested thus) 
In earthly bodies carried heauenly mindes, 
Pitcht^ round about in order glorious. 
Their sunny tents, and houses luminous ; 
All their etemall day in songs employing, 
loying their ende, without ende of their ioying, 
While their Almightie Prince destruction is destroy- 
ing. 

32. 

Full, yet without satietie, of that 
"Which whetts, and quiets greedy appetite, 
"Whear neuer sunne did rise, nor euer sat ; 
But one etemall day, and endles light 
Giues time to those whose time is infinite — 
Speaking with thought, obtaining without fee, 
Beholding Him whom neuer eye could see. 
And magnifying Him that cannot greater be. 

1 Cattermole misprints ' pitch ' Gr. 



214 

33. 

How can sucli ioy as this want words to speake ? 

And yet what words can speake such ioy as this ? 

Par from the world, that might their qniet breake. 

Here the glad soules the face of beanty kisse ; 

Powr'd out in pleasure, on their beds of blisse ; 
And drunke with nectar-torrents, euer hold 
Their eyes on Him, whose graces manifold 

The more they doe behold, the more they would 
behold. 

34. 

Their sight drinkes lonely fires in at their eyes, 
Their braine sweete incense with fine breath 

accloyes, 
That on God's sweating ^ altar burning lies ; 
Their hungrie eares feede on their heau'nly noyse, 
That angels sing, to tell their vntould ioyes ; 
Their vnderstanding, naked truth ; their wills 
The all, and selfe-sufficient Goodnesse, fills : 
That nothing here is wanting, but the want of 
ills. 

35. 

H^o sorrowe nowe hangs clowding on their browe, 
jS'o bloodies maladie empales their face. 



1 Neaie changes to ' That on the heavenly ' G. 



Christ's trivmph after death. 215 

Ko age drops on their hayrs his siluer snowe, 
No nakednesse their bodies doeth embase, 
"No ponertie themselues and theirs disgrace, 
1^0 feare of death the ioy of life deuours, 
'No ynchast sleepe their precious time deflowrs, 
No losse, no giiefe, no change, waite on their 
winged hours. 

36. 

But now their naked bodies skome the cold, 
And from their eyes ioy lookes, and laughs at paine; 
The infant wonders how he came so old, 
The old man how he came so young againe ; 
StiU resting, though from sleep they still refraine^ 
"Whear all are rich, and yet no gold they owe, ^ 
And all are kings, and yet no subjects knowe. 
All full, and yet no time on foode they doe bestow. 

37. 

For things that passe are past : and in this field 
The indeficient Spring no "Winter feares ; 



1 Changed (probably by misprint) to ' restraine ' in 1632 

edition. Gr. 

2 Own. G. 

3 Dr. Neale says here *He is simply translating the 

' Nam transire transiit ' of S. Peter Damiani ' : but this 
is preposterous. Eich and glowing as his Hymn de 



216 Christ's teivmph after death. 

The trees together fruit and blossome yeild ; 

Th' unfadirLg lilly leaues of siluer beares, 

And crimson rose a skarlet garment weares ; 
And all of these on the saints' bodies growe, 
ISTot, as they woont, on baser earth belowe : 

Three riners here, of milke, and wine, and honie, 
flowe 

38. 

About the holy citie rowles a flood 

Of moulten chrystall, like a sea of glasse ; 

On which weake streame a strong foundation 

stood : 
On lining diamonnds the building was, 
That all things else, besides itselfe, did passe : ^ 
Her streetes, instead of stones, the starrQs did 

pane. 
And little pearles, for dnst, it seem'd to haue ; 
On which soft-streaming manna, like pure snowe, 

did wave. 



Gloria Paradisi is in other thoughts, he is poor and 
faint in the antithetic-ideas so vividly worded by 
Fletcher in this stanza and the context. The most 
hasty comparison will prove this. G. 
1 Sur-pass. Gr. 



CHEIST^S TEIYMPH AFTEE DEATH. 217 

39. 

In midst of this citie cselestiall, 

Whear the Etemall Temple should haue rose, 

Lightened the Idea^ Eeatificall : 

End, and beginning of each thing that growes ; 

Whose selfe no end, nor yet beginning knowes ; 

That hath no eyes to see, nor ears to heare ; 

Yet sees, and heares, and is all-eye, all-eare ; 
That nowhear is contain'd, and yet is euery whear: 

40. 

Changer of all things, yet immutable ; 

Before and after all, the first and last ; 

That, moouing all, is yet immoueable ; 

Great without quantitie ; in Whose forecast 

Things past are present, things to come are past ; 
Swift without motion ; to Whose open eye 
The hearts of wicked men vnbrested lie ; 

At once absent and present to them, farre and 
nish.^ 



1 Neale substitutes ^ Vision.' G-. 

2 Dr. Neale remarks * One of our Poet's most careless 

lines. Surely, something like this would have been 
better ?— 
*' To whom the dark is light : to whom the far is nigh " 
but Fletcher's thought looks deeper. G. 



218 ckrist's triymph after death. 

41. 

It is no flaming lustre, made of light ; 

IN'o sweet concent, or well-tim'd harmonie ; 

Ambrosia, for to feast the appetite, 

Or flowrie odour, mixt with spicerie ; 

No soft embrace, or pleasure bodily ; 
And yet it is a kinde of inwarde feast, 
A harmony, that sounds within the brest. 

An odour, light, embrace, in which the soule doth 
rest. 

42. 

A heav'nly feast, no hunger can consume ; 

A light vnseene, yet shines in euery place ; 

A sound, no time can steale ; a sweet perfume 

'No winds can scatter ; an intire embrace 

That no satietie can ere vnlace : 

Ingrac't into so high a fauour, thear 
The saints, with their beawpeers ^ whole world 
outwear ; 

And things vnseene doe see, and things vnheard 
doe hear. 

43-. 

Ye blessed soules, growne richer by your spoile ; 
Whose losse, though great, is cause of greater gains ; 

1 Beau-pere=^compaiiion : Cf. Spenser F.Q. iii. 1. 35. G. 



219 

Here may your weary spirits rest from toyle, 
Spending your endlesse eav'ning that remaines, 
Among those white flocks and celestiall traines, 

That feed vpon their Sheapheard's eyes, and 
frame 

That hean'nly musique of so woondrous fame, 
Psalming aloude the holy honours of His name I^ 

44. 

Had I a voice of steel to tune my song, 
Wear euery verse as smoothly fil'd as glasse, ^ 
And euery member turned to a tongue, 
And euery tongue wear made of sounding brasse ; 
Yet all that skill, and all this strength, alas ! 
Should it presume to guild^ wear misadvis'd, 
The place, where Dauid hath new songs devis'd^ 
As in his burning throne he sits emparadis'd. 



1 Dr. Neale adds here " He is thinking no doubt of the 

Vesper Hymn : 

Largire clarum vespere 
Quo vita nunquam decidat : 
. both Poets, of course drawing their inspiration from 

Zech. XIV. 7." G. 

2 Southey has ' smooth as smoothest glass ' G. 

3 He substitutes ' t ' adorn' G. 



220 Christ's trivmph after death. 

45. 

Most happie prince, whose eyes those starres hehold, 
Treading ours vnder feet ! now maist thou powre 
That ouerfLowing skill, whearwith of onld 
Thou woont'st to combe^ rough speech ; now 

maist thou showr 
Presh streames of praise vpon that holy bowre, 
Which well we Heaven call ; not that it rowles 
But that it is the hauen of our soules — 
Most happie prince, whose sight so heau'nly sight 
behoulds ! 

46. 

Ah, foolish sheapheards, that wear woont esteem 
Your god all rough and shaggy-hair' d to bee ; 
And yet farre wiser, sheapheards then ye deeme ; 
For who so poore (though who so rich) as hee 
When, with vs hermiting^ in lowe degree, 
He wash't His flocks in Jordan's spotles tide ; 
And, that His deare remembrance aie might bide,^ 
Did to vs come, and with vs liu'd, and for vs di'd? 

1 Here also he has ' smooth ' G. 

2 Southey reads ' When sojourning withns in low degree ' 

Eichardson and Cattermole 'When with us sojourning 
in low degree ' G. 

3 The same mis-read 'And that his dear remembrance 

misrht abide * G. 



Christ's teiymph aftee death. 221 

47. 

But now so liuely colours did embeame 
His sparkling forehead, and so ^ shiny rayes 
Kindled his flaming locks, that downe did stream 
In curies along his necke, whear sweetly playes 
(Singing His wounds of loue in sacred layes) 
His deerest Spouse,^ Spouse of the deerest Lover, 
Knitting a thousand knots ouer and ouer, 
And dying still for loue; but they her still recover: — 

48. 

Taire Egliset, ^ that at his eyes doth dresse 

Her glorious face ; those eyes from whence ar shed 

Infinite belamours ; * whear, to expresse 

His loue, High God all heaven as captive leads, 

And all the banners of His grace dispreads. 

And in those windowes doth His armes englaze, 
And on those eyes the angels all doe gaze, 
And from those eies the light of heau'n doe gleane^ 
their blaze. 



1 SoTithey misprints ' such ' G. 

2 The Church. G. 

3 Richardson, Sonthey, and Cattermole substitute ^Fairest 

of Fairs.' G. 

4 Southey reads ^attractions infinite:' = attractions or 

love-spells. G. 

5 Southey reads ' obtain/ and Richardson and Cattermole 

' catch.' G. 



222 chiust's teivmph after death. 

But let the Kentish lad/ that lately taught 
His oaten reed the trumpet's siluer sound — 
Young Thyrsilis, and for his musique brought 
The willing sphears from heau'n to lead a round 
Of dauncing nymphs and heards/ that sung, and 
crown 'd 
Eclecta's Hymen with ten thousand flowrs 
Of choycest prayse ; and hung her heau'nly 
bow'rs 
With saffron garlands, drest for nuptiall para- 
mours ; — 

50. 

Let his shrill trumpet with her siluer blast. 
Of faire Eclecta and her spousall bed, 
Be the sweet pipe, and smooth encomiast : 
Eut my greene Muse, hiding her younger head 
Ynder old Chamus' flaggy banks, that spread 
Their willough locks abroad, and all the day 
With their owne watry shadowes wanton play — 
Dares not those high amours, aud loue-sick songs 
assay. 



1 Phineas Fletcher. — See our Memorial-Introduction, 

ante, G. 

2 Richardson and Cattermole read ' swains.' G. 



chkist's tkiymph after death. 223 

51. 

Impotent words, weake lines, ^ that strine in vaine — 
In vaine, alas ! to tell so heau'nly sight ! — 
So*^ heav'nly sight, as none can greater feigne, 
Peigne what he can, that seemes of greatest might : 

Might any yet compare with infinite ? 

Infinite sure those ioyes, my words but light ; 
Light is the palace where she dwells — blessed 
wight !^ 



1 Misprinted 'sides' in 1610 edn., and which Southey 

repeats. G. 

2 Southey here, by misprintiag ' To' for ' so,' and in line 

5th 'could' for 'might' misses the echoing repetition — 
a device afterwards used by Milton. See our Memorial- 
Introduction of Phineas Fletcher. G. 

3 Richardson and Southey read ' then how bright.' G* 




Beverse of p. 84. 

Kuina coeli pulchra : iam terris decus^ 
Deusque : proles matris innuptse, et pater : 
Sine matre natus, sine patre excrescens caro : 
Quem nee mare, aether, terra, non coelum capit, 
Ytero puellse totus angnsto latens ; 
-^qusevus idem patri, matre antiquior : 
Heu domite victor, et triumphator ; tui 
Opus opifex. qui minor quam sis, eo 
Maior resurgis : vita, quae mori velis, 
Atq ergo possis ; passa finem ^ternitas. 
Quid tibi rependam, quid tibi rependam miser ? 
Yt quando ocellos mollis inuadit quies, 
Et nocte membra plurimus Morpheus premit, 
Auide videmur velle de tergo sequens 
Effugere monstrum, et plumbeos frustra pedes 
Celerare ; media succidimus segri fuga ; 
Solitum pigrescit robur, os quserit viam, 
Sed proditurus moritur in lingua sonus : 
Sic stupeo totus, totus hseresco, intuens 
Et ssepe repeto, forte si rependerem : 
Solus rependit ille, qui repetit bene. 

G. Fletchee. 

TeXeiov iaiiy teat reXivv Q€09 reXo^.^ 



*In 1632 there follows here 

'E<7Tt reXwv to re\o<i' reXo? eari Qeo9 ro reXeiov, G. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



ENGEAVIIS-GS IN THE EE-ISSUE OF 2is^d 
EDITIOJS" (1632) IJ^ 1640. 

1. The Birtli of Christ— opposite page 1. At 

bottom these lines : — 

A new way here that prophets text may pass 

for truth. : the oxe his owner knew, the ass 

his master's crib : thus thus incradled lay 

your Kiag, your Lord, your Christ : there fix, there 

stay 
thy stoopinge, low, deiiected thoughts ; shall I 
siace he lay thus depressd, care where I lie. 

Esay 1. 3. 

2. The Circumcision of Christ — opposite page 23. 

At bottom these lines : — 

View well this sacred portraiture, and see 
what pangs thy Sauio[or] felt, and all for these ; 
Wnt thou retume a sacrifice may please 
him who had felt all this ? be then all these : 
Be thou both preist and knife : re-act each part 
thy selfe againe, Go circumcise thy heart. 



228 EI^GRAYIJ^GS. 

3. The Eaptism of Christ — opposite page 26. At 
bottom these lines :— 

How many riddlinge thoughts strangly appeare 
Unfolded in this shadow : for first here 
I see the Fountaine in the Streams : I see 
the water wa[s]hd by washing in't : And wee 
through nature black to pitch and inck, are scour' d 
to snow, while water's on an other pour'd 
I see agaiue. He not say all I can 
least I turne Jordan to an ocean. 

4* The Temptation of Christ— opposite page 30..i 
At bottom these lines : — 

'Tis written : Thus the tempter taught : (and thus 

by Scriptures wrack' d he oft preuailes on vs 

weake flesh and blood) But that he thus did dare 

By Moses and the prophets to insnare 

the Sonne of God ; thinck it not strange that he 

become confounded in his policie 

for sure it could but slender hopes'^afford 

he by the Scriptures should orecome ye Word. 

6. The Crucifixion of Christ — opposite page 49. 
At bottom these lines :— 

What you see here does but the picture show 

of sorrowes picture : miracle of woe ! 

Greefe was miscall' d till now : what plaiuts before 

e're mou'd the bowells of the earth or toare 

the rocks ? nay more, the heaun's put out their light 



ENGEAYINGS. 229 

And truc'd with darkness to auoide that sight. 
Blind Israel ! this this your hardnass shewes 
ye then tum'd stones whilst thus those stones turn'd 
Jewes. 

6. The Eesurrection of Christ — opposite page 69. 

At bottom these lines : — 

Forget those horrid stiles of death : see here 

who died, and by his presence there 

imhalm'd the grane. See here who rose : and so 

left hell infeebled, and the powers below 

and death suppress' d. So that a child (no doubt) 

may safly play w*H now the sting's pluck'd out 

7. The Ascension of Christ — opposite page 81. At 

bottom these lines : — 

Tis finished : and hees now gon vp on high 

rich in the spoyles of hell : in maiesty, 

and glorie (and glorie glorious farre 

above all words) each glimpse treads out a starre^ 

dazles the sun : And whether true this bee 

here written, follow him, and you shall see. 



* Geo. Yate ' is the * sculpt[or] / of these ^ engravings ' 
which are grotesque in the extreme, though in the 
* Baptism ' and ' Ascension ' there are evident remin- 
scenes of the great sacred Painters. Everywhere 
perspective and proportion are \Tlolated. — The ' Temp- 



230 E^rOEAYIls^GS. 

tation ' is ludicrous in its attempt to group the three 
temptations together. Generally the faces are hideous. 
It is just possible that as these Engravings did not 
appear until 1640 and so were posthumous, the Verses 
may belong to Phineas not Giles : but their place 
seems appropriate in Giles' volume. G. 




A CAJTTO YPO]^ THE DEATH OF 
ELIZA.^ 




HE early Howres were readie to unlocke 
The doore of Mome, to let abroad the 
Day; 

When sad Ocyroe sitting on a rocke, 
Hemmed^ in with teares, not glassing as they 

say 
Shee woont, her damaske heuties (when to 
play 
Shee bent her looser fancie) in the streame, 



* Originally published in * Sorrowe's Joy, or a Lamen- 
tation for our Deceased Soveraigne Elizabeth, with a 
Triumph for the Prosperous succession of our Gratious 
Kin^ James. Printed by John Legat, printer to the 
University of Cambridge, 1603.' Our text is taken 
from Nichol's * Progresses of James I.,' Vol. i., pp. 
17 — 19. In the margin are variations from the reprin^ 
in Nichol's * Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,' Vol. iii,, 
257—259. G. 

1 Hemmd. G. 



232 A CAN^TO VPON THE DEATH OF ELIZA. 

That sudding^ on the rocke, would closely seeme 
To imitate her whitenesse with his frothy creame. 

Eut hanging from the stone her careful head, 

That shewed (for grief e had made it so to shew) 
A stone itselfe, that only differed, 

That those without, these streames within, 

did flow, 
Eoth euer ranne ; yet neuer lesse did grow ; 
And tearing from her head her amber haires, 
Whose like or none, or onely Phoebus weares, 
Shee strowd them on the flood to waite ^^pon her 
teares. 

About her many IS'ymphs sate weeping by, 
That when shee sang were woont to daunce 
and leape ; 
And all the grasse that round about did lie, 
Hung full of teares, as if that meant to weepe ; 
Whilst th' vndersliding streames did softly 
creepe, 
And clung about the rocke with winding wreath, 
To heare a Canto of Elizae's^ death ; 
"Which thus poore nymph shee sung, whilest 
Sorrowe lent her breath. 



1 Query — foaming, as in frothy (soap) ' suds ?* G. 

2 EHzaes. G. 



A CAIfTO I7P0K THE DEATH OF ELIZA. 233 

Tell me, ye blushing currols that bunch out, 

To cloath with beuteous red your ragged sire ^ 
To let the sea-greene mosse curie round about, 
With soft embrace (as creeping Tines do wyre 
Their loved elmes) your sides in rosie tyre ; 
So let the ruddie vermeyle of your cheeke 
Make stain' d carnations fresher liueries seeks, 
So let your braunched armes grow crooked, smooth, 
and sleeke. 

So from your growth late be you rent away. 

And hung with silver bels and whistles shrill ; 
Vnto those children be you giuen to play, 
Where blest Eliza raign'd; so neuer ill 
Betide your caues, nor them with breaking 
spill; 
Tell me if some vncivill hand should teare 
Your branches hence, and place them otherwhere; 
Could you still grow, and such fresh crimson 
ensignes beare ? 

Tell me, sad Philomele, that yonder sits't 
Piping thy songs vnto the dauncing twig, 

And to the waters fall thy musicke fit'st; 
So let the friendly prickle never digge 



1 Misprinted * fixe ' in Prog, of King James. G. 



234 A CANTO YPOX THE DEATH OF ELIZA. 

Thy watchful! breast with wound, or small, 
or bigge, 
Whereon thou leanest ; so let the hissing snake, 
Sliding with shrinking silence, neuer take 
Th' vnwarie foote, whilst thou perhaps hangst 
half ^ awake. 

So let the loathed lapwing, when her nest 

Is stolne away, not as shee vses, flie, 
Cousening the searcher of his promised feast, 
But, widdow'd of all hope, still Itis crie. 
And nought but Itis, Itis, till shee die. 
Say, sweetest querister of the airie quire, 
Doth not thy Tereu, Tereu, then expire, 
"When Winter robs thy house of all her greene 
attire ? 

Tell me, ye veluet-headed violets 

That fringe the crooked banke, with gawdie 
blewe ; 
So let with comely grace your pretie^ frets 
Ee spread ; so let a thousand^ Zephyrs sue 
To kisse your willing heads, that seeme t' 
eschew 
Their wanton touch with maiden modestie ; 
So let the siluer dewe but lightly lie, 
Like little watrio worlds within your azure skie. 



1 Halfe. G. 2 Prettie. G. 3 Thou^nd. G. 



A CANTO YPOX THE DEATH OF ELIZA. 235 

So when your blazing leaues are broadly spread, 
Let wandring nymphes gather you in their 
lapps, 
And send you where Eliza lieth dead, 

To strow the sheete that her pale bodie 

wraps ; 
Aie me, in this I enuie your good haps ; 
Who would not die, there to be buried ? 
Say if the sunne denie his beames to shedde 
Upon your lining stalkes, grow you not withered ? 

Tell me, thou wanton brooke, that slipst away 

T' avoid the straggling banks still flowing cling 
So let thy waters cleanely tribute pay, 

Vnmixt with mudde, vnto the sea your king ; 
So neuer let your streames leaue murmuring, 
Vntil they steale by many a secret furt^ 
To kisse those walls that built Elizaes Court, 
Drie you not when your mother springs are choakt 
with durt ? 

Tes, you all say, and I say, with you all, 
!N'aught without cause of ioy can ioyous bide, 

Then me, vnhappie nymph, whom the dire fall 
Of my ioyes spring : — but there, aye mee, 
shee cried, 

1 = forth? G. 



236 



A CANTO VPON THE DEATH OE ELTZA. 



And spake no more ; for sorrow speech denied^ 
And downe into her watrie lodge did goe ; 
The very waters when shee sunke did showe 
"With many wrinkled^ ohs, they sympathized her 
woe: 

The snnne in mourning clouds inveloped, 

Flew fast into the westearne world to tell 
N'ewes of her death ; Heaven it selfe sorrowed 
With teares that to the earthes dank bosome 

feU; 
But when the next Aurora 'gan to deale 
Handfuls of roses 'fore the teame of day, 
A shepheard^ droue his flocke by chance that 
way, 
And made the nymph to dance that mourned 
yesterday. 

G. Fletcher, Trinit. 



1 Wrinckled. G. 2 Sheappheard. G. 



FBOM 
EEWAED OE THE FAITHEULL.^ 



(1.) THE HEAVENLY COTJNTET. 

.... ** Whicli diuine thought wee shall not find in 
the hearts alone of the children of light, that haue 
the starres of heauen shining thicke in them, 
(Hehr. 11, 16) but in the minds of heathen men, 
that lay shadowed in their owne naturall wise- 
dome, out of which the banisht Consul of Eome, 
Boetius could sing 

Hsec, dices, memini patria est mihi, 

TTinc ortus, hie sistam gradmn. 

O this my country is, thy soule shall say, 
Hence was my birth, and here shall he my stay." 

(pp. 29, 30.) 

[Boethius, Cons. Phil, iv., metr. 1, 1. 25, 26. G.] 



* See our Memorial-Introduction for account of the 
Treatise. G. 



238 FBOM BE WARD OF THE EAITHEULL. 

(2.) THE EOSE and ^ELACK EUT COMELY.' 

*^Cleane opposite are these glories, and delights, 
and this ambition to those of our vnder-world. 
Gather all the roses of pleasure that grow vpon 
the earth, sayes not the Greek Epigram trueiy of 
them: 

To po^ov aKjiia^et ^atov y^povov^ rjv he TrapeKOrj, 
^rjTLOv €Vp7j(Tet9 ov poSoPj aXXa jBoltov, 

The Rose is faire and fading, short and sweet, 

Passe softly hy her ; 
And in a moment you shall see her fleet, 

And turne a bryer. 

They looke fairely, bnt they are sodainely dis- 
pelled : whereas, contrary, all the flowers of Para- 
dise (like the Church, Cant. i. 5. 6.) sun-burnt 
and frosted with the heat and cold of this tem- 
pestuous world, looke black and homely, but flour- 
ish inwardly with diuine beauty, and are all 
glorious within. So that wee may well say of 
the Church as the Poet sings : — 

She's black : what then ? so are dead coales, but cherish, 

And with soft breath them blow, 
And you shall see them glow as bright and flourish, 

As spring-borne Eoses grow. (pp. 120, 121.) 

[The author of the Epigram Rose seems unknown : but 
Jakobs gives a German translation as follows : — 



FBOM KEWABD OF THE FAITHFULL. 239 

" Wenige Tage nur wahrt die Eosenzeit ; sind sie ver- 

schwunden, 
Siehst du die Eose nicht mehr; sondem die Domen 

allein." 

Dr. Johnson quotes it in his ' Eambler/ No. 71, with the 
sole difference of TrapeXOrj^ for the last word of the 
first line : which elsewhere occurs as TrapeXOrj (as in 
Fletcher). Johnson gives no author's name but trans- 
lates 

" Soon fades the rose ; once past the fragrant hour, 
The loiterer finds a bramble for a flower." 

[See Notes and Queries, 4th. S. 11th April, 1868 : p. 351. 
and Anthologia Grseca, iv. 126, ed. Jacobs.] 

A Correspondent of ^ Notes and Queries ' with reference 
to the Epigram, communicates an amusing Greek pun 
from it, which he heads ' Cane and Birch.' — " The 
occasion of it was a complaint of a friend to an old- 
fashioned pedagogue that, objecting to the corporal 
punishment of little boys at school, he had sent his 
son to one where it was said birch was unknown, but 
found that a very cruel and severe use of the cane was 
substituted for it. Ah!" said the old-fashioned 
school-master exultingly, whose meditations, like 
Fielding's Thwackum's, were fuU of birch, 

Zt/twi/ evprjffei^ ov TOAON aXXa BATON. 

The reply was pedantic, but it was appropriate. [As 
before. May 16th, p. 467.] 
Perhaps it may be well to remember on the whole, the 
fine words of Dr. F. W. Faber : — " Eoses grow on 



240 FEOM EEWABD OF THE FAITHFTJLL. 

briars, say the wise men of the world, with that 
sententious morality which thinks to make virtue 
truthful by making it dismal. Yes ! but as the very 
different spirit of piety would say, it is a truer truth 
that briars bloom with roses. If roses have thorns, 
thorns also have roses. This is the rule of life. Yet 
everybody tells us one side of this truth, and nobody 
tells us the other."— ('< The Precious Blood," p. 216.) 
The second Epigram supra^ is too corruptly given in the 
Greek (by Fletcher) for restoration : and too unimpor- 
tant to spend pains on. G.] 

(3.) THE EICH POOE MAN. 

*^ Let vs graunt Diues tlie happinesse to die a 
ricli man, wHcIl he shall neuer doe (for as the 
heathen sings of death, 

Involuit humile pariter et celsum caput, 
^quatque summis infima. 
Death and the Graue, make euen all estates. 
There, high, and low, and rich, and poor are mates." 

(p. 203.)* 
[Boethius : De Cons. Phil. lib. ii., metr. 7, 1. 13 14. G.] 

(4.) UNGODLY EICH. 

^^To speake soothly, as the last of the best, and the 
best of the last. Poets sales of all morall helpes 

* LiVESEY (as before) gives this more tersely : — 
^ There is no difference : Death hath made. 
Equal the sceptre and the spade.' (p. Q^.) G. 



FEOM EBWABD OF THE FAITHFITLL. 241 

which Fabricius, and Cato, and Brutus, three of 
the most famous of the Eomane Worthies thought 
to eternize themselues by, 

Cum sera vobis~rapiet hoc etiam dies, 
lam vos secnnda mors manet : 

So may the vngodly rich more truly say of him- 
selfe, and all worldly meanes, whereby he hoped to 
perpetuate* his life and memorie. 

The poor man dies but once : but that I 
Already dead, haue yet three deaths to die. 

Por, being dead in his bodie, he still remaines aliue 
in his soule, estate, and posteritie to suffer death, 
and therefore death is said to gnaw^ and feed 
vponhim, Psal. 49. 14. (p. 205-207.)" [Boethius 
is the poet referred to, supra : De Cons : Phil : lib ii. 
metr. 7, 1. 25, 26. G.] 

(5.) THE ' GODS ' ACCUSED. 

"Neither did simple women onely, but the wisest 
of the heathen Gouemors loade their Gods with 
their proper crimes : 

efyo? 6' OVK. atTL09 et/mtf 

AWa Zevs Kai fiolpa Kai 7jepo(po77t9 'Epivvii. 



* Misprinted ^ perpetrate ' G. 



242 FHOM EEWAIO) OP THE PAITHFULt. 

Sayes great Agamemnon, alas ! 

It was not he that did them iniurie. 
But lone and Fate, and the night Furie. 

But lupiters answer is recorded by tlie same Poet: 

'E|^ TjjJbeiou r^ap (pacn Kaic efijULvat ol he ical avrol 
^(prjffiv cLTaaOaXtrjaiv VTrepfiopov aX^i e'^^ovaiv. 

Men say their faults are ours when their own wils 
Beyond their fate, are authours of their ills." (pp. 232, 235.) 
[Homer Iliad xix., 86, 87. and Od. i. 33, 34. G.] 

(6.) HUSBANDEY. 

" The Art of husbandry. . , .wants both schollers 
and teachers, meeting, very seldom with such 
religious votaries towards them as the Prince of the 
Latin Poets was, who in his Georgicks, or Poeticall 
Husbandrie, breaks out into this godly wish. 

Me vero primum dulces &c. 
No, first of all O let the Muses wings 
Whose sacred fountaine in my bosome springs, 
Keceiue, and landing mee ahoue the starres, 
Shew me the waies of heuen : but if the barres 
Of vnkinde nature stoppe so high a flight, 
The Woods and Fields shall be my next delight." (pp. 
273, 274.) 

[Vkgil, Georg. ii., 476-478, 483, 485. G.] 



FROM HEWAILD OF THE FAITHFULL. 243 

(7.) OTHEES. 

It is indeede the nature of al men to think other 
mens lines more happy then their owne, 

Optat epliippia bos piger, optat arare caballus. 
Faine would the Oxe the horses trappins weare ; 
And faine the Horse the oxes yoake would beare. (p. 283.) 
[Horace Epist. i. 14, 43. G.] 




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